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PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS, 

FROM THE 

BRITISH AND FOREIGN MEDICAL REVIEW 
OF DR. FORBES : 



DOCUMENTS AND RECORDS 

y OF THE 

MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, 

ILLUSTRATING THE 

ORIGIN OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION, AND ITS PROGRESS 
IN THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 




BOSTON : 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



1848. 
t 



i« 



.Mb 



BOSTON : 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, 
21, School-street. 



OFFICERS 

OF THE 

FOE THE YEAR 1847-8. 



JOHN C. WARREN, M.D President. 

HON. STEPHEN FAIRBANKS . . . Vice-President. 

MOSES GRANT, Esq. ...... Treasurer. 

WALTER CHANNING, M.D. . . . Secretary. 

HENRY EDWARDS, Esq. 

AMOS A. LAW r RENCE, Esq. \ . . Councillors. 

CHARLES T. RUSSELL, Esq. ' 



INTRODUCTION. 



This publication of the Massachusetts Temper- 
ance Society has been occasioned by an article 
in the last number of the " British and Foreign 
Medical Review." Dr. Forbes, the distinguished 
editor of that Review, after the production of 
twenty-four volumes of the best medical journal 
which has ever appeared in England, or perhaps in 
any country, — having, for important reasons, re- 
solved to terminate it, — has produced in this num- 
ber a most able and scientific investigation of the 
effects of stimulating liquors on the animal economy. 
The Government of the Massachusetts Temper- 
ance Society have thought that the republication 
of Dr. Forbes' s article would be very seasonable 
and useful in the United States. And as, in tracing 
the history of the Temperance Reform, he has 



INTRODUCTION. 



adverted principally to facts occurring in England, 
the Society has thought it would be interesting to 
introduce the article by some documents relating 
to the first movements in this country ; showing 
how, from a feeble and vacillating origin, these 

ments gradually acquired strength and impetus 
sufficient to carry this reform through a considerable 

of the civilized world. Before adducing the doc- 

:ts, it seems necessary to premise, that in Dr. 
Forbes' s article, for sufficient reasons no doubt, the 
question as to the utility or injury arising from the 

ual use of wine has not been fully considered. 

ds particular, it is probable that the change of 
opinion is greater here than in Europe. A vast 
number of persons on this side of the Atlantic have 
wholly abandoned the use of wine, cider, and malt 

is ; and many of those who continue to employ 

have greatly diminished the quantity. Wine 

is no longer thought necessary in the convalescent 

of fever. Cider, formerly one of the household 

'sions of almost every family in the North, is 
rarely seen ; and the very trees which produced it 
ire either cut down for fuel, or converted to the 

action of fruits for food. The stronger beers 

quite disused, except among emigrants ; and 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

even the milder are employed only in some very 
light and nnstimnlating form to allay thirst, prin- 
cipally in the hot season. 

The apprehension that a sudden disuse of fer- 
mented liquors might be injurious has been dispelled 
by the result of a vast number of cases, in which, 
after long-continued employment, a sudden and to- 
tal abandonment has taken place, not only without 
impairing health and comfort, but with positive 
improvement in strength, activity, and agreeable 
sensations. How common is it among us to see 
persons who in former times used wine freely, and 
who have now given it up, present an appearance 
of mental and bodily vigor they had not exhibited 
before ! The influence of such change of habit in 
the wealthier classes has been great beyond calcu- 
lation in leading the mass of society to abandon 
the use of spirits, and to repeat an experiment 
already made by those whom they are accustomed 
to respect and follow. Such having been the con- 
sequences of the disuse of wine, how desirable is it 
that all those who have not abandoned it, who wish 
well to their fellow-men, and are willing to show 
that they are capable of making the sacrifices they 
advise, should submit to a privation which they have 



■3 



INTRODUCTION. 



sufficient reason to believe will be most salutary to 
themselves and others ! 

The changes of habit alluded to above might be 
shown by a vast number of facts. As, however, we 
have no intention of entering fully into the subject 
here, we shall only mention a single class, — the 
banishment of wine from public entertainments. 
Formerly, all considerable festivals were conducted 
under the auspices of Bacchus, without whose tute- 
lary influence it was thought impossible duly to 
celebrate a great anniversary, political, literary, or 
religious. Of late years, we have had the grati- 
fication of witnessing so many exceptions to this 
practice, that it appears very probable the rule will 
be reversed, and the exceptions change to the oppo- 
site side. The great festivals on the anniversary of 
National Independence are in many places celebrated 
without other stimulus than that of patriotic feeling. 
The annual ceremonies of our literary institutions, 
too often stained by lavish draughts of the juice of 
the grape, are now purified by the effusions of chas- 
tened wit, and elevated by the flights of an unclouded 
imagination. Most of the universities, and particu- 
larly the oldest, and we may perhaps venture to say 
the most distinguished, have unshackled themselves 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

from the chains of ancient habit. Under the influ- 
ence of a master-spirit/' 1 the great annual festival of 
Commencement has been accomplished without the 
aid of wine ; and the oldest of our literary frater- 
nities, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, has enjoyed 
the excitement of a social meeting, without the con- 
sequent depression from artificial stimulus. Wine 
is no longer admitted at the yearly convocation 
of the clergy, or the assemblage of the medical 
profession of this State. The great association of 
mechanics of the metropolis hold a brilliant triennial 
feast, from which every kind of alcoholic, fermented, 
vinous, and other stimulating liquid is wholly ex- 
cluded, f 

* President Everett, distinguished as a scholar, an 
orator, and a statesman ; and who has employed his great 
talents and the influence of his high reputation to the 
advancement of science, morality, and religion. 

f In order to give a more exact idea of the importance 
of the celebrations alluded to above, we have thought it 
well to state the number of persons that attended them, as 
nearly as can be ascertained : — 

Fourth of July Celebration in Faneuil Hall 1000 

Commencement at Cambridge University 300 

Festival of Phi Beta Kappa ISC- 
Festival of the Clergy 200 

Festival of the Massachusetts Medical Society^ . 300 

Festival of the Massachusetts Mechanics' Association .... 600 



RECORDS. 



ORIGIN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR THE 
SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 



On the 26th of June, 1811, the General Association 
of Massachusetts appointed Rev. Samuel Worcester, 
D.D. ; Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D. ; Rev. Abiel 
Abbot; Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth; Reuben D. 
Mussey, M.D. ; "William Thurston, Esq. ; Joseph 
Torrey, M.D. ; and Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. a Com- 
mittee to co-operate with Committees of the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and the Gen- 
eral Association of Connecticut, in devising measures 
which may have an influence in preventing some of 
the numerous and threatening mischiefs that are 
experienced, throughout our country, from the exces- 
sive and intemperate use of spirituous liquors. This 
Committee met at different times for consultation, 
corresponded on the subject, and finally determined 
to make an effort for the formation of a State Society 
1 



A C RIj&IN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

for the Suppression of Intemperance. A sub-com- 
mittee, consisting of Dr. Worcester, Dr. Torrey, 
and Mr. Wadsworth, was appointed to prepare a 
Constitution. After being presented to the whole 
Committee, and adopted, it was presented by them 
to a more general meeting, in Boston, on the 4th of 
February, 1813. At another meeting at the State 
House, on the 5th instant, the Constitution was 
adopted, and a Society formed, called the " Massa- 
chusetts Society for the Suppression of 
Intemperance." The object, as expressed in the 
second article of the Constitution, was " to discoun- 
tenance and suppress the too free use of ardent spirits, 
and its kindred vices, profaneness and gaming ; and 
to encourage and promote temperance and general 
morality" 

The Preamble and Constitution read as follows : 

PREAMBLE. 

The excessive use of ardent spirits, in our coun- 
try, cannot fail to be deeply deplored by every 
friend to the true interests of mankind. It may be 
assumed, upon a very moderate estimate, that more 
money is expended for ardent spirits, unnecessarily 
and even injuriously consumed, than is expended 
for the support both of the ministry and of schools. 
By this lamentable excess, many individuals are 
ruined, many families are made wretched, the pub- 
lic morals are corrupted, and society is deeply 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. > 

injured. An evil so extensively destructive calls 
loudly for a remedy. It is well known, indeed, that 
vices, when prevalent and inveterate, are not easily 
suppressed ; yet experience testifies, that, by suitable 
endeavors, they may be counteracted and checked. 
Particularly it has been proved by successful experi- 
ment, that, with the blessing of God, much to this 
effect may be done by associations formed for 
this benevolent and important purpose. 

From such an association in this Commonwealth, 
calculated to act upon an extensive scale, great and 
lasting utility may reasonably be expected. Under 
these impressions, therefore, for such an association 
the following Con^^g^m has been framed : — 

CONSTITUTION. 

Art. I. — The name of this association shall be 
The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of 
Intemperance. 

Art. II. — The object of the Society shall be to 
discountenance and suppress the too free use of 
ardent spirits, and its kindred vices, profaneness and 
gaming ; and to encourage and promote temperance 
and general morality. With a view to this object, 
the Society will recommend the institution of aux- 
iliary societies, in the different parts of the Com- 
monwealth, upon such a plan as shall be deemed 
the best adapted to give system and efficiency to the 
whole. It will also hold correspondence, as occa- 



*± CONSTITUTION OP THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

sion may offer, with other societies which may be 
instituted for the same general object. 

Art. III. — No person shall be eligible as a 
member, who is not of a fair moral reputation ; nor 
shall any one be admitted as a member, unless 
nominated in open meeting, and approved by the 
votes of two thirds of the members present at the 
time. Any person, thus nominated and approved, 
may become a member, by subscribing this Consti- 
tution, or announcing his acceptance of his election, 
and paying two dollars for the use of the Society, as 
in the case of original members. 

Art. IV. — The Society shall meet annually at 
Boston, on Friday next after the general election, 
at nine o'clock, a.m. and at other times as duly 
notified. The meetings of the Society, annual and 
special, shall be publicly notified in two, at least, 
of the Boston newspapers during two weeks imme- 
diately preceding the day on which they are to be 
held. At each annual meeting, a sermon or address 
shall be delivered before the Society by some person 
elected for the purpose. The number of members 
shall not be less than thirty to constitute a quorum 
for the election of officers and members, and not 
less than twenty-one for other business. 

Art. V. — The officers of the Society shall be a 
President, three Vice-Presidents, a Corresponding 
Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and 
eight Councillors, to be chosen at each annual 
meeting, and to continue in office until others are 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 1 

elected. These officers shall constitute a Board of 
Council. 

Aet. VI. — It shall be the duty of the President 
to appoint the place of holding the annual meeting of 
the Society, and also to call special meetings on the 
request of a majority of the officers of the Society, 
or any ten members thereof; and, if the President 
be absent from Boston, any of the Vice-Presidents 
shall have authority to appoint any meeting as 
aforesaid, and to direct the Secretary to notify the 
same. The Corresponding Secretary shall hold 
such correspondences as the purposes of the Society 
may require, subject to* the direction of the Board 
of Council. The Recording Secretary shall duly 
notify all the meetings, and keep a fair record of 
the doings of the Society and of the Board of Coun- 
cil. The Treasurer shall keep the moneys and the 
accounts of the Society, subject to the direction and 
superintendence of the Board of Council. 

Akt. VII. — It shall be the duty of the Board of 
Council to act as the Executive of the Society ; to 
make communications to the auxiliary societies ; 
to receive communications from them ; to collect, 
combine, and digest facts and general information 
relating to the purposes of the Society ; to devise 
ways and means for the furtherance of these pur- 
poses ; to apply the funds agreeably to the Society's 
directions ; and, at each annual meeting, to report 
to the Society their doings, and a digest of the facts 
and general information which they may have col- 
1* 



6 



CONSTITUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



lccted, and such measures as they may judge suita- 
ble for the Society to adopt and pursue. They 
shall hold stated quarterly meetings. 

Art. VIII. — Each member of this Society shall 
make it an object to discountenance and prevent, as 
far as may be, by his own example and influence, 
every kind of vice and immorality. 

Art. IX. — All clergymen in this Commonwealth 
are considered as members, on their giving notice of 
their desire of becoming such, or subscribing the 
Constitution ; and they are exempted from the pay- 
ment of two dollars, as above provided respecting 
other members. 

Art. X. — The Constitution shall not be altered, 
except at an annual meeting, and by two thirds of 
the members present. 



At the second annual meeting of the society, May 
27th, 1814, the following article was added to the 
Constitution : — 

" Every annual meeting of the Society shall be 
opened with prayer by some person whom the Presi- 
dent shall request to perform that service." 



After adopting the above Constitution, the So- 
ciety adjourned to nine o'clock next morning, to 
organize by the choice of officers. At this meeting, 
the Hon. Samuel Dexter, Esq. was chosen Presi- 



FOR THE SUFPRESSION OF INTEMPERANXE. / 

dent ; Gen. John Brooks, Dr. John Warren, Hon. 
Benjamin Pickman, Vice-Presidents ; Rev. Abiel 
Abbott, Corresponding Secretary ; Rev. Joshua 
Huntington, Recording Secretary ; Samuel H. Wal- 
ler, Esq. Treasurer ; Rev. Dr. Kirkland, Rev. Dr. 
Lathrop, Rev. Dr. Worcester, Rev. Mr. Pierce, 
Nathan Dane, Esq., Hon. Timothy Bigelow, Rich- 
ard Sullivan, Esq., Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., Coun- 
cillors. 

It was then voted, That the officers of this So- 
ciety be hereby requested to present a petition to 
the Legislature of this Commonwealth for an act of 
incorporation, as soon as they shall deem it expe- 
dient. 

It was also voted, That a Committee be appointed 
to wait on his Excellency the Governor, his Honor 
the Lieutenant-Governor, the members of the Coun- 
cil, and both branches of the General Court ; and 
present to them the Constitution for their considera- 
tion, and subscription if they see fit. 

Also voted, That the officers of the Society be a 
Committee for that purpose. 

Voted, That the Treasurer, or some other officer 
whom he shall select, be requested to attend at the 
Land Office, in the State House, this day, and Mon- 
day, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of next week, be- 
tween the hours of eleven and two, for the purpose 
of receiving the subscriptions of gentlemen who have 
been present at the deliberations of the Society, or 
who have given their assent to the same. 



O DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

Voted, That all gentlemen who shall leave their 
names with either of the Secretaries, for the purpose 
of becoming members, shall be considered as original 
members of the Society, when admitted at the first 
annual meeting ; and that public notice be given of 
this Society and of this vote. 

Voted, That the President and Recording Secre- 
tary be requested to cause the Constitution of the 
Society to be printed, as soon as may be, in such 
form and number as they may judge necessary. 

Voted, That this meeting be dissolved. 



The following extracts from the records of the 
Society will exhibit its active exertions in pro- 
moting temperance, and in leading some of the great 
public movements which have been made since its 
formation. 



May 27, 1814. 

The second annual meeting of the Society was 
holden at the vestry of the First Church. 

The Society voted, That a Committee be appointed 
to take into consideration the expediency of pro- 
curing or producing one or more cheap tracts for 
publication. Rev. Messrs. Bates and Channing, and 
Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. were chosen. 

The Society voted, That the words " profaneness 
and gaming " be omitted in the second article of the 
Constitution. 



TOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. V 

June 1, 1816. 

The fourth annual meeting of the Society was 
held at the Theological Library. 

The Selectmen having recently met with difficulty 
in consequence of withholding licenses, at their re- 
quest it was voted, That a Committee be chosen to 
confer with them on the subject. Hon. Mr. Dane, 
William Thurston, and S. H. Walley, Esqrs. and 
Rev. Messrs. Channing and Lowell, were chosen for 
this purpose. 

It was voted, That the Committee for publication 
be instructed to print two thousand copies of the 
address in connection with the annual report, and 
that twelve copies be forwarded to each auxiliary 
branch of this Society, and two copies to each town 
in the Commonwealth, one of which shall be depos- 
ited in the Social Library, where one exists, or with 
the clergyman for circulating as extensively as may 
be ; and that the residue be circulated at the dis- 
cretion of the Committee. 

Voted, That the Board of Council be requested to 
adopt such measures relative to a due observance of 
the existing laws of this Commonwealth, and to 
obtain a revival of the same if necessary, as they 
shall judge proper to promote the objects of this 
Society. 

Voted, That the Hon. Mr. Ward, William Thur- 
ston, and Samuel H. Walley, Esqrs. be a Committee 
to confer with a Committee appointed by the Rev. 
Convention of ministers to consider whether any 



10 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



measures may be usefully adopted by them for dis- 
countenancing and suppressing the vice of intem- 
perance. 

December. 

The Council met in the Theological Library. 

A report was presented by the Committee ap- 
pointed to confer with the Selectmen ; and it was 
referred to them to present a petition to the Legis- 
lature, praying that honorable body to revise and 
amend the act for granting licenses to retailers of 
ardent spirits. 

The same Committee were re-chosen. 



May 29, 1818. 

The sixth annual meeting of the Society was held 
at the Theological Library. 

A Committee of nine were chosen to consult, from 
time to time, with the Selectmen of Boston and other 
towns on the best methods of effecting the objects 
of the Society, and of affording to Selectmen such 
facts, relating to the objects of the Society, as may 
be thought useful. 

Hon. Judge Prescott, Israel Thorndike, Artemas 
Ward, Thomas L. Winthrop, Esqrs. ; Judge Davis ; 
Rev. Messrs. Channing and Lowell ; Henry J. Oliver 
and William Thurston, Esqrs. were chosen. 



May 28, 1819. 
The seventh annual meeting of the Society was 
held at the vestry of the Church in Chauncy Place. 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 11 

Much deliberation took place on the utility of 
more frequent correspondence with the old auxiliary 
societies, and on the importance of exciting influ- 
ential characters in the community to the formation 
of new ones. 



May 30, 1823. 

The eleventh annual meeting of the Society was 
held in Chauncy Place Church. 

Rev. Mr. Collier, Hon. Judge Prescott, and Mo- 
ses Grant, Esq. were appointed to confer with the 
Mayor on the subject of licenses to retailers, and 
concerning such measures as may be taken to im- 
prove the laws in relation to this and similar 
subjects. 

A Committee was appointed to prepare a circular 
letter to auxiliary societies and individual gentle- 
men. 

May 28, 1824. 

The twelfth annual meeting of the Society was 
held at the vestry of the Church in Chauncy 
Place. 

Voted, That the members be requested to sign an 
obligation, that they will not distribute liquors to 
those employed by them to labor. 

Rev. H. Ware, jun. and Lewis Tappan, Esq. 
were appointed a Committee to announce this mea- 
sure to the public, and the Secretary to announce it 
to the auxiliaries, 



12 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



It was voted, That the same Committee address 
the Boards of direction of the several manufactur- 
ing establishments of this Commonwealth and else- 
where ; state to them the fact that ardent spirit has 
been excluded from several establishments of the 
kind with great advantage to the same ; and so- 
licit them to co-operate in a measure so important 
to the welfare of the community. 



May 27, 1825. 

The thirteenth annual meeting of the Society was 
held in the vestry of the Church in Chauncy Place. 

It was voted, That Francis C. Gray, Samuel 
Haven, Henry J. Oliver, Andrews Norton, and Levi 
Bartlett, be a Committee to inquire whether the laws 
relating to granting licenses to retailers, and re- 
straining intemperance, be executed ; and whether 
any additional measures, of a public or private 
nature, are necessary or practicable for the suppres- 
sion of intemperance. 



April 4, 1827. 

A meeting of the Board of Council was held at 
the house of the Secretary, Dr. John Ware. 

An important and successful movement was made 
at this time to put a check upon the riotous and 
disgraceful proceedings in the Common, and other 
public places, on days of festivity. 

The Council appointed a Committee, consisting 
of Rev. Dr. Jenks, the Secretary, and the Treasurer, 



tor the Bumnmnt OF en-temperance. 18 

to consider the expediency of applying to the gov- 
ernment of the city, to request that measures be 
taken to prevent the sale of spirituous liquors on 
the Common on public days, and to prevent also 
their introduction as refreshments on all public- 
occasions within the control of the city govern- 
ment. 

A number of gentlemen, acted on by this impulse 
given by the Society, soon after petitioned the city 
government to prohibit the sale of spirituous liquors 
in places of public resort. The petition was grant- 
ed, and a wonderful change took place in the tran- 
quillity and order of the public festivities. 

For a number of years, the Society had languished. 
A new effort was now made to arouse the zeal w of 
the community. A new election of officers took 
place. The Society soon became active and suc- 
cessful in its operations, and, together with the 
American Temperance Union and the combined aid 
of county and town associations and of influential 
individuals, was instrumental in working a great 
change both in public opinion and practice. 

June 4. 
The Society met at the Chauncy Place vestrj 
half-past nine o'clock, a.m. 

Many gentlemen were present, and joined the 
Society. A letter was read from Chief Justice Par- 
ker, declining a re-election to the office of Presi 
2 



14 DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

and a Committee of nomination was appointed, who 
recommended Dr. John C. Warren as the candidate 
for that office. 

The Society proceeded to the choice of officers, 
when the following gentlemen were elected : — 
John C. Warren, M.D. President. Eliphalet Porter, 
D.D. ; William Jenks, D.D. ; Abiel Abbott, D.D. 
Vice-Presidents. John Ware, M.D. Secretary. 
Levi Bartlett, Esq. Treasurer. Hon. Nathan Dane, 
Rev. Henry Ware, jun. Lewis Tappan, Esq. Rev. 
Ezra S. Gannett, Benjamin Seaver, Esq. Hon. Ste- 
phen Fairbanks, J. F. Flagg, M.D. and Rev. Jon. 
Going, Councillors. 

It was voted, That it be recommended to the 
Council to prepare resolutions, to be proposed and 
acted upon at some public meeting of the Society ; 
the time and place of which to be left to their 
decision. 

Voted, That the members be furnished with as 
many of the tracts of the Society as they may be 
able to distribute. 



At a special meeting of the Society, it was voted, 
That the Council be requested to take such measures 
to interest medical gentlemen in the cure of intem- 
perance, as in their judgment may seem best. 

In consequence of the movements of the Society, 
Dr. Warren, at a meeting of the Massachusetts 
Medical Society, June 6, 1827, offered the follow- 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF IXTEMFERANCE. 15 

ing preamble and resolutions, which were adopted 
with great unanimity ; all having been passed nemine 
contradicente, except the fourth : — 

Whereas there is reason to believe that the habit- 
ual and intemperate use of ardent spirits is often the 
consequence of an opinion, that such liquids con- 
tribute to the health of men ; and whereas it seems 
to be a duty peculiarly belonging to this Society to 
oppose and correct so insidious an error, — 

Therefore, Resolved, 1st, That, in the opinion of 
this Society, the constant use of ardent spirits is not 
a source of strength and vigor, but that it is gener- 
ally productive of weakness and disease. 

Resolved, 2dly, That this Society agree to dis- 
courage the use of ardent spirits as much as lies in 
their power ; and, for this purpose, to discontinue the 
employment of spirituous preparations of medicine, 
whenever they can find substitutes ; and, when com- 
pelled to use them for any great length of time, to 
warn the patient of the danger of forming an uncon- 
querable and fatal habit. 

Resolved, 3dly, That the excessive and constant 
use of wine is, in the opinion of this Society, a cause 
of many diseases ; and that, though it is useful in 
some of them, as in the stage of weakness in fever, 
its use is, even in these cases, often carried too far, 
and continued too long. 

Resolved, 4thly, That, in the opinion of this Soci- 
ety, the most salutary drink for the use of man is 






DOClMEVi> Ol rHE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



water ; that even this pure liquid must be em- 
ployed in a rational and discreet manner, especially 
in hot weather ; and that, if we were called on to 
recommend some drink of a more stimulating quality, 
we should advise the use of malt liquors. 

Resolved, lastly, That this Society will use the 
skill of its members in ascertaining the best modes 
of preventing and curing the habit of intemperance ; 
and, for this purpose, a premium of dollars 

shall be offered for the best dissertation on the 
subject, which, after being approved by the Coun- 
cillors, shall be read at the next annual meeting of 
the Society, and afterwards printed ; and that the 
authors be requested to point out the circumstances 
in which an abandonment of the habitual use of 
stimulating drinks is dangerous, and also the effects 
of the use of vinous and ardent spirits on the dif- 
ferent organs of the animal economy. 

The blank in the last resolution having been filled 
so as to read " fifty dollars," it was thereupon voted, 
That the Councillors be requested to take all neces- 
sary measures to give full effect to the above resolu- 
tions. 

The premium was awarded to Dr. William Sweet- 
ser, and his dissertation was read at the annual 
meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society. 

A meeting, which was very important in rela- 
tion to the temperance cause, as will appear by 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 1 7 

the following report, was soon after held in Julien 

Hall. 

Nov. 5. 

A meeting of the Society was held at the Julien 
Hall, at half-past six o'clock, p.m. pursuant to a 
notice from the Committee appointed at the last 
meeting ; Dr. Warren, the President of the Society, 
in the chair. The meeting was opened with prayer 
by Rev. J. G. Palfrey. The annual report was then 
read, and the following resolutions were proposed 
by the Committee : — 

1st, Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meet- 
ing, there is sufficient evidence that ardent spirits 
are not necessary as a refreshment, or a support 
to the strength during labor ; but, on the contrary, 
are absolutely injurious to the health; that to the 
general moderate use of them is to be chiefly 
attributed the prevalent habit of intemperance : 
and that entire abstinence from them, except when 
prescribed as medicines, be recommended to all 
classes of society. 

2d, Resolved, That it be recommended to ship- 
owners, masters of vessels, farmers, mechanics, 
proprietors and superintendents of manufacturing 
establishments, and all others having the care of 
young persons when first entering on laborious 
occupations, to endeavor to induce those under 
their charge to form the habit of labor without any 
use of ardent spirits. 

3d, Resolved, That it be recommended to aU 
2* 



18 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



having charge of the education of the young to 
endeavor to produce on their minds a strong impres- 
sion of the dangerous tendency of even a moderate 
use of ardent spirits. 

The meeting was addressed, in support of these 
resolutions, by Dr. Z. Boylston Adams, Dr. Walter 
Channing, Rev. E. S. Gannett, Hon. William Stur- 
gis, Dr. J. B. Flint, and Rev. W. Collier ; and they 
were all unanimously adopted. 

It was then voted, That the report and resolu- 
tions be printed and distributed. 

Voted, That it be recommended to the Council of 
the Society to call future public meetings like the 
present, whenever they may deem it expedient. 

Voted, That the proceedings of this meeting be 
signed by the President and Secretary, and pub- 
lished in the newspapers. 

This meeting was attended by a very large and 
respectable assemblage of citizens, in addition to 
the members of the Society. At half-past nine, the 
meeting was dissolved. 



May 29, 1828. 

The sixteenth annual meeting of the Society was 
held at the vestry of the Rev. Dr. Channing's Church 
in Federal-street. 

The President of the Society, Dr. Warren, re- 
marked that, in consequence of the order of the 
Mayor and Aldermen prohibiting the sale of spirit- 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 19 

uous liquors on the Common, that place had been 
less frequented during the present year than for- 
merly ; and that it seemed desirable some attraction 
should be presented there, of a different kind, 
which should continue to make it a place of cheerful 
resort on holidays. He suggested, among other 
things, the procuring of a band of music to play 
upon the Common, the establishment of public 
games, &c. &c. 

On motion of the Rev. H. Ware, jun. it was 
voted. That the consideration of this subject be 
referred to the Board of Council ; and that they 
be requested to hold an early meeting for that pur- 
pose, in order that measures may be taken, if deemed 
expedient, before the 4th of July. 

June 6. 

A meeting of the Council was held at the house 
of the President. 

It was voted, That the Secretary procure one 
thousand copies of the annual address to be printed, 
and send one copy to each of the members of the 
Legislature, and one to each clergyman in the Com- 
monwealth. 

It was voted, That the President be directed to 
confer with General William Sullivan, Hon. D. 
Webster, Gen. Theodore Lyman, Hon. P. O. That- 
cher, D. Sears, Esq. and Judge Simmons ; and, in 
the name of our Society, to request them to compose 
with himself a Committee to inquire what may and 



20 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



ought to be done towards providing some safe 
amusement for the people, who assemble on the 
Common during our holidays. 

Voted, That the Committee have power to enlarge 
itself, or to fill vacancies as the case may require. 

Voted, That Messrs. Fairbanks, Adams, and 
Seaver, be a Committee to solicit subscriptions as 
the means of carrying into effect such arrangements 
for the Common as the President shall signify to 
them are judged expedient by the Committee. 



In the following year, the President addressed, in 
the name of the Society, the following letter to the 
Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Boston : — 

Boston, May 26, 1829. 

Gentlemen, — Application was made last year to 
the city authorities by the officers of the Society 
for the Suppression of Intemperance, for the pur- 
pose of devising and executing some measure 
calculated to occupy and amuse the people on pub- 
lic holidays, such as election day, &c. in order to 
divert them from the use of ardent spirits. 

There was, at the time this ajDplication was made, 
but a short period intervening between the day and 
the 4th July, for which anniversary this arrangement 
was contemplated ; and, lest the public authorities 
should be unable to organize a system for the attain- 
ment of an object so important to the health, morals, 
and comfort of the community, the applicants then 



POR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 21 

agreed to bear such expense as might be requisite 
to pay for a band of music to play on the Common 
on that day ; hoping that hereafter the city govern- 
ment would take the subject into their paternal 
care, and organize a regular and permanent system 
for the present and future advantage of our com- 
munity. 

Owing to peculiar circumstances, this arrangement 
has not been carried into effect ; for which reason, 
and also to prevent the ill consequences which would 
arise from the want thereof, — in the name of the 
said Society, and at their request, I would hereby 
propose and petition, that a band of music be em- 
ployed, under the direction of the city authorities, 
to play on the Common, on the election day follow- 
ing ; viz. the 27th day of May. And I hereby, as 
President of said Society, agree to defray the ex- 
penses thereof. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours, 

J. C. Warren. 

March 8, 1830. 

The Society met this evening, by adjournment, in 
the Hall of the House of Representatives ; and a 
very large number of citizens, both ladies and gentle- 
men, assembled to participate in the proceedings. 

The meeting was opened with prayer by Rev. Dr. 
Tuckerman. 

The President then addressed the meeting, stating 
the objects for which it had been convened, and 



-2 DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

giving a concise and highly entertaining history 
of the Society, as well as of all other proceedings 
on the subject of intemperance which had come to 
his knowledge. 

The annual report was then read. It concluded 
by presenting to the consideration of the meeting 
the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, 1st, That, while the habit of intemper- 
ance has been diminished by the efforts of this and 
other associations, it must still be considered as 
foremost in the rank of vices, and worthy of the best 
efforts of philanthropists and patriots to subdue it. 

Resolved, 2d, That, in the opinion of this meeting, 
the use of ardent spirits is unhealthy ; that it is in- 
consistent with a vigorous action of the bodily and 
mental powers ; and that, therefore, we recommend 
an entire abstinence from them to all classes of the 
community. 

Resolved, 3d, That the habitual use of wine is 
not necessary nor salutary, and that its diminution 
would tend to promote the pleasure and improve- 
ment of Society. 

Resolved, 4th, That the officers of this Society be 
requested to open correspondences on this subject 
with other countries, in order to ascertain what 
progress has been made in the diffusion of correct 
opinions in regard to the use of stimulating liquids. 

Resolved, 5th, That the report made at this 
meeting be accepted and printed, together with an 



rem the srrniESSiox of intemperance. 



23 



account of the proceedings thereon, and such ad- 
ditional information as may hereafter be obtained ; 
and that the same be distributed as widely as 
possible. 

The report and resolutions then became the sub- 
ject of a very interesting discussion. They were 
advocated in general by Hon. William Sullivan; 
Hon. Mr. Calhoun, of Springfield ; Dr. Brooks, of 
Barnardstown ; Judge Simmons, of Boston ; and 
Mr. John Tappan, of Boston. No objection was 
made to any part, except the third resolution. 
After stating his objections to this, and referring 
to the proverbial temperance of the inhabitants of 
wine-drinking countries, Mr. George Bond proposed 
the following substitute for it : — 

Resolved, That, while the habitual use of all 
wines is believed to be injurious to health, we regard 
the introduction of the low wines of France and 
Germany, at reduced prices, as favorable to the 
promotion of temperance. 

The amendment was advocated by the mover, 
Mr. Sullivan, and Dr. Ware ; and opposed by the 
President, who, being called upon for an opinion 
on the effects of the use of wine on the health, 
defended the third resolution. 

Mr. Tappan also considered the habitual use of 
wine promotive of intemperance, and therefore would 
do nothing to encourage the use of it, although he 



24 DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

would not recommend the entire exclusion of it 
from society. 

Dr. Ware was opposed to the original resolution, 
on the ground that it offered matter for the consid- 
eration of a medical society, or of one for the 
preservation of health, rather than of ours, which is 
for the suppression of intemperance ; and that its 
adoption might bring unnecessary odium on the 
Society, and produce re-action unfavorable to its 
success. 

As there seemed to be considerable difference of 
opinion respecting the advice we ought to promul- 
gate, in regard to the use of wine, it was generally 
thought best that all proceedings in relation to it 
should subside for the present; and accordingly, 
the question being taken on the amendment, it was 
rejected ; and so also, the question being taken on 
the third resolution, it was rejected. 

The report, together with the other resolutions, 
was then unanimously accepted. 

In the course of the debate, some notice was taken 
of the increasing number of licensed houses in this 
city ; and Henry J. Oliver, Esq. one of the alder- 
men, offered some pertinent remarks on the subject, 
showing that the Mayor and Aldermen had already 
co-operated with the friends of temperance, so far 
as to reduce the number of these dangerous places 
very considerably ; and that they were desirous and 
determined to curtail them still more. He also 
stated, that, with reference to what had been said 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 25 

by Judge Simmons of the facilities which existed in 
the theatre for the intemperate use of ardent spirits, 
and the consequent disturbances and offences, which 
were committed there, the Mayor and Aldermen had 
never granted any license for retailing spirits in 
that house. They only gave a license for theatrical 
exhibitions, and the proprietors had assumed to 
establish bar-rooms under that commission. 

Several of the gentlemen who addressed the meet- 
ing alluded to the theatre as being highly obnoxious, 
under its present arrangements, to the disapproba- 
tion and to the reforming influences of the opposers 
of intemperance ; and it was generally thought, that 
the sale of spirituous liquors in the theatre must 
deter many sober and respectable people from attend- 
ing there at all. 

May 1. 

A meeting of the Council was held at the house 
of Dr. Ware. 

The President made a communication from Rev. 
H. Hildreth, of Gloucester, proposing to act in his 
region as agent, if agreeable to the Society. The 
President also suggested the expediency of extend- 
ing the operations of the Society, in a similar way, 
to other parts of the Commonwealth. 

Whereupon it was voted, — 

That one or more agents be appointed in this 
Commonwealth to promote the objects for which 
this Society was formed. 
3 






DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



That these agents be authorized to form auxiliary 
societies, whenever a disposition to do so is exhib- 
ited. 

That these agents be authorized to receive volun- 
tary contributions for furthering the designs of the 
Society, and to transmit the same to the Treasurer 
of the Society. 

That the Rev. H. Hildreth, of Gloucester, be 
appointed agent for the north-eastern district of the 
Commonwealth ; and that the voluntary services of 
other individuals, to officiate in different parts of 
this State, will be gratefully accepted by this 
Society. 

That the above resolutions be published in the 
newspapers. 

May 27. 

The eighteenth annual meeting of the Society 
was held in the vestry of St. Paul's Church. 

James T. Austin, Esq. made some remarks re- 
specting the evasions of the order of the city gov- 
ernment prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors 
on the Common, and some consequent disturbance 
there yesterday ; and, as it was said that some 
imputation had been thrown on the policy which 
the Society had pursued in this behalf, it was voted, 
That Messrs. Lawrence, Fairbanks, and Adams, be 
a Committee to confer with the Mayor and Alder- 
men on the subject. 

Rev. H. Hildreth, who had recently been ap- 



WOm THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERAN' A i 

pointed the agent of the Society, reported that he 
had undertaken the business under favorable aus- 
pices, and had already effected the formation of one 
pretty numerous auxiliary society. 

The Society then proceeded to the Church, where 
an eloquent address was delivered by the Hon.. J. 
T. Austin to a crowded audience. 



Jan. 25, 1831. 

A public meeting of the Society was held at 
Park-street Church, this evening, for the purpose 
of receiving a report and an address from Rev. H. 
Hildreth, who has been operating very successfully 
of late as agent in behalf of the Society in Essex 
county and elsewhere. His Excellency Governor 
Lincoln w r as there, and a large portion of the legis- 
lative bodies, who had been specially invited. The 
address was ingenious, entertaining, and practical ; 
full of sound and thorough- going doctrine on the 
subject, without any offensive language or imper- 
tinent remarks. 

March 23. 

A meeting of the Council was held this evening, 
at the house of the President, for the purpose of 
conferring with several gentlemen, who were invited 
to meet with them, on the expediency and practica- 
bility of employing some gentleman to act as an 
agent of the Society, who should devote his whole 



28 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



time, for a scries of years, to the promotion of its 
objects. 

The President stated his views of the present 
situation and necessities of the temperance cause ; 
that what had been already accomplished would fail 
to produce much permanent reformation, unless it 
be vigorously followed up in the manner now pro- 
posed ; that intemperance was still so prevalent and 
pernicious, as to make strong demands on the phi- 
lanthropy of the community ; that an individual 
could now be procured, eminently qualified in every 
respect to undertake the office of agent, and to 
devote himself to its duties ; and that the Council 
seemed called upon to avail themselves of so favor- 
able an opportunity to advance the objects of the 
Society. 

The meeting unanimously accorded with these 
sentiments ; and, after consultation, it was resolved, 
That an effort should be made to procure the means 
for supporting an agency of the kind proposed for 
one, two, or a term of years. 

It was resolved, That a circular should be pre- 
pared, setting forth the necessities of the case, as 
contemplated by the meeting, and asking pecuniary 
assistance to enable the Society to meet them in 
the manner proposed. The circular was not to ema- 
nate from the Council as a body, but to bear the 
signatures of the gentlemen present at the meeting, 
and of such others as might be disposed to aid the 
project by their countenance and co-operation. The 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION" OP INTEMPERANCE. 



29 



funds which should be collected were to be depos- 
ited with the Massachusetts Society for the Sup- 
pression of Intemperance, and to be applied to the 
support of a competent and faithful agent in the cause 
of temperance. 

CIRCULAR. 

Sir, — The success of the efforts for the suppres- 
sion of intemperance in this country is well known 
to you. The changes in the moral condition of the 
community in this respect have been so great and 
sudden, as to excite general surprise. Although 
much has been effected, a great deal remains to be 
done. The mass of intemperance which still exists 
in our large towns is great and dreadful. A large 
part of the laboring men in the metropolis have 
not felt the influence of the changes going on in 
the country ; for, in truth, they have not yet been 
made known, nor applied to them. There is reason 
to believe, that there is even an increase in the use 
of ardent spirits in this and some other places. 

The evils arising, and likely to arise, from this 
source, have pressed themselves forcibly on the 
minds of some persons in this city. They are of 
opinion, that much may be done by the gentlemen 
of this place to cut off this source of a great part of 
the poverty, vice, sickness, and misery of the metro- 
polis, and thus relieve their distress with more 
economy and certainty than is done by the existing 
modes of charity. They are also of opinion, that, 
3* 



30 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



while the present generation will be greatly bene- 
fited, the result to posterity — to the future condition 
of this population — will be important beyond cal- 
culation. 

We concur in the opinion which has been often 
expressed, that those persons who may be weaned 
from the use of ardent spirits, and those who may 
be prevented from acquiring the habit of using them, 
are ignorant of the consequences of habitual use. 
They are not reached by such monitors as are now 
offered ; and can be reached only by personal appli- 
cation, by persuasion, and by appeals which cannot 
be made through the press alone. There are hun- 
dreds and thousands who consume every day a 
quantity of ardent spirits, without ever having had 
an idea of doing any wrong, but who rather think 
it would be wrong not to take this accustomed 
stimulant. 

A judicious and zealous agent may at this moment 
be obtained to carry on the work of reformation. 
He is willing to search out the vice wherever it 
exists, and to attack it by persuasion, by the distri- 
bution of printed books, and by every method 
proper to overpower it. As such an opportunity 
for doing good to our generation may not occur 
again, it has been thought expedient to take the 
sense of the most respectable individuals in the place 
as to their disposition to contribute aid to this im- 
portant object. 

It is proposed to raise a fund of money by an 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 31 

annual subscription for three years, or by single 
donations, to be applied to the support of an agent, 
and to the printing and distribution of papers 
adapted to show the evils of intemperance in their 
proper light. 

An individual will call on you, in a few days, for 
such an answer to this application as you may think 
proper to give. 

(Signed) 

John C. Warren '- ; William Sullivan 

Charles Lowell Amos Lawrence 



George C. Sha truck 
John Pierpont 
Alonzo Potter 
John G. Palfrey 



"William Jenks 
Levi Bartlett 
Abel Adams 
Joshua B. Flint. 



The funds which may be procured are to be 
placed in the hands of the Massachusetts Society 
for the Suppression of Intemperance, to be by them 
applied to the above-named object. 

Boston, March 29, 1831. 

* This seenis the proper place to notice the efforts, in 
the cause of temperance, of one of the above-named gentle- 
men, who is no longer living. William Sullivan, Esq. one 
of the most distinguished members of the bar in this city, 
determined at this time to give his influence to the sup- 
port of the temperance cause ; and he continued to give it 
through the remainder of his life. His talents, eloquence, 
high standing in the circles of literary and political life, and 
his unbounded attentions to strangers, gave him an oppor- 



32 DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

At the same time, representations were made in 
the public newspapers, of the extent of the vice of 
intemperance in Boston ; and conferences were held 
with various respectable individuals, to acquaint 
them with the existing state of things in this place 
and the vicinity. The way being thus prepared, a 
subscription-book was procured, and put into the 
hands of an active and experienced person, who 
handed it to those who were thought most disposed 
to offer their aid. 

The immediate result of this application to the 
citizens was the subscription of three hundred 
dollars for three years, which was, from time to 
time, increased, until it amounted to the sum of 
twelve hundred dollars. 

May 27. 

Agreeably to previous notice, the Society held, 
this evening, in the Representatives' Hall, a public 
meeting, which was opened by the President, at 
eight o'clock. After stating the object of the meet- 
ing, he adverted to the present state of things in 
regard to intemperance, and the reasons and facili- 
ties which now presented themselves to the Society 
for a more extended and efficient action in the cause 
which they were the first to espouse. 

t unity of carrying the temperance reformation to the ears 
of many who would not have listened to it from other 
quarters. 



roil THE SUPPRESSION- OF INTEMPERANCE. 



33 



Rev. H. Hildreth followed with some pertinent 
and entertaining views, calculated to awaken atten- 
tion and interest in the cause of temperance, espe- 
cially on grounds of reasoning ; and to show that 
more could be done towards reducing the amount 
of suffering in the world, by suppressing intemper- 
ance, than in any other way. 

An interesting discussion then arose, in which 
Rev. J. G. Palfrey, Moses Grant, Esq. Judge Sim- 
mons, and two gentlemen from the country, partici- 
pated. It continued with increasing interest till a 
late hour, when a Committee of thirteen persons 
were appointed to consider and report on the most 
expedient measures for raising the necessary funds 
for employing an agent of this Society to carry into 
effect' its designs in suppressing intemperance. 

The meeting was then adjourned to the same 
place, at some future time, if it be deemed practi- 
cable. 

June 3. 

The meeting thus adjourned was held at the 
Hall of the House of Representatives. The Com- 
mittee submitted their report, and recommended 
the following resolutions to the consideration of the 
Society : — 

Resolved, in the opinion of the Massachusetts 
Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, That, 
if the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars were 
annually expended in supporting judicious and 
intelligent agents, commissioned to visit the abodes 






DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



of the friendless, who are liable to the temptations 
of intemperance, and the abodes of many who have 
already fallen into such habits, the most gratifying 
results in the cause of humanity may be expected 
therefrom. 

Resolved, That the citizens of Boston be, and 
they hereby are, respectfully invited to meet at the 
Court House, Court Square, on the 20th day of 
June next, at four o'clock, p.m. to take into con- 
sideration whether any and what means should be 
taken to raise funds for the purposes in the first 
aforegoing resolve set forth. 

Resolved, That the said citizens be, and they are 
hereby, requested to consider whether any and what 
means should be adopted to diminish the number 
of places in Boston in which ardent spirits are 
retailed. 

Resolved, That the said citizens be, and they are 
hereby, requested to consider whether any and what 
alterations should be sought for, either in the exist- 
ing laws or in the city charter, with a view to 
suppress the causes of intemperance. 



John C. Warren 
William Sullivan 
Amos Lawrence 
William Simmons 
John G. Palfrey 
Hosea Hildreth 
George C. Shattuck 



Stephen Fairbanks 
Moses Grant 
Harrison Gray 
Benjamin Seaver 
Joshua B. Flint 
John P. Spooner. 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 3 3 

December. 
The Council appointed Messrs. Lawrence, Gray, 
and the Secretary, a Committee to inquire whether 
it be practicable to establish a paper to be specially 
devoted to the temperance reformation ; — and, if 
not, whether a certain portion of the papers now 
printed in the city may not be secured to the use of 
the Society, as a medium of communication with the 
public, once or twice a week, and the impressions 
at those times multiplied for gratuitous distribution : 
and, if so, on what terms such an arrangement may 
be made. 



May 23, 1832. 

The twentieth anniversary of the Society was held 
this evening, at half-past six o'clock, at the Masonic 
Temple. 

After transacting the usual business, the Society 
adjourned to St. Paul's Church, where an interesting 
address was delivered by William Sullivan, Esq. to 
a very crowded and attentive audience. 

May 24. 
The Society assembled with many of the friends 
of temperance, who had been invited to join them, 
in the Lecture Room of the Masonic Temple at eight 
o'clock. The President, on taking the chair, briefly 
stated the object of the meeting to be to devise ways 
and means for rendering the operations of the Society 
more extensive and effectual than it was possible to 



36 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



make them at present, and urged the importance of 
establishing and maintaining an agency, which couid 
not be done without more funds than are at present 
at the disposal of the Society. 

The following resolutions were adopted : — 

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be 
presented to the Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, 
and to Hon. Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Navy, 
for the discouragement they have put on the use of 
ardent spirits in the army and navy, and the impor- 
tant benefits which have resulted therefrom. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be 
given to the Hon. Daniel Webster, the Hon. Theo- 
dore Frelinghuysen, and to the other members of 
Congress, who have so ably supported the cause of 
temperance in the public meeting at Washington. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be 
presented to the gentlemen of the clergy, of various 
denominations, who have powerfully and successfully 
advocated the cause of temperance in their pulpits ; 
and further, that they be respectfully requested to 
continue their benevolent effort for perfecting this 
noble work. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be 
given to the merchants and shipowners who have 
prohibited the use of ardent spirits during the navi- 
gation of their vessels, and have thereby proved 
that voyages can be made cheaper and more suc- 
cessfully than before ; that seamen are more tracta- 
ble, and better satisfied with their situations : and 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 37 

that a great moral reformation has been thus begun 
among this neglected, interesting, and truly impor- 
tant class of men. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be 
given to the Rev. Hosea Hildreth, agent of this 
Society, for his able services in the cause of tem- 
perance during the last two years, performed with- 
out any compensation from the Society. 

Hon. Jonathan Phillips offered the following 
resolutions, which, after being eloquently advocated 
by Messrs. Phillips, Pierpont, Tappan, Palfrey, and 
Gannett, were adopted. 

Resolved, That, in the present encouraging state 
of the cause of temperance, it is important to meet 
the call for support and assistance from various 
parts of the Commonwealth, by the appointment of 
an agent to visit such places as may require his 
services. 

Resolved, That the cause of temperance can in no 
way be so effectually promoted as by the formation 
of local auxiliary societies in the towns or school 
districts of the Commonwealth, and that it be 
recommended to the Council of the Society to adopt 
measures to promote this desirable object. 

On motion of H. Gray, Esq. it was then resolved, 
That, in order to procure means for supporting an 
agent, and for the necessary purposes of the Society, 
a Committee be appointed to raise funds by annual 
subscriptions for five years. 
4 



38 DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 

An adjourned meeting for the same purpose was 
held, June 5 ; and, at its close, papers were circu- 
lated among the audience, and subscriptions made 
to the amount of three hundred dollars. 

Dec. 31. 

The President reported to the Council, that 
arrangements had been made with the publishers of 
the Farmer's Almanac, for the insertion of a paper 
on the temperance cause, in twenty thousand or 
more copies of that popular work. 

During the past year, the Society has had sev- 
eral meetings, at which useful discussions were 
held, tending to awaken public attention to the 
necessity of continuing the labors to promote tem- 
perance ; and has produced, among others, the 
following publications : — 

1. Some thousands of a letter to the gentlemen 
of Boston. 

2. Seven thousand copies of a letter addressed to 
the citizens of Boston, to induce them to form a 
temperance society ; which measure has been suc- 
cessful, and a society has been organized, and a 
tract published by its members, entitled, " A hun- 
dred and thirty Questions to Consumers of Ardent 
Spirits." 

3. Seven thousand copies of a report addressed 
to all the friends of temperance. 

4. Ten thousand copies of the excellent circular 
letter issued by the Temperance Society of the State 



1011 THE surniESSiON OF INTKMIM-RANCK. 39 

of New York. These copies have been distributed 
in Boston, and in various parts of the Common- 
wealth. 

These things have been done with very limited 
means, and from the liberality of a small number of 
persons. 



April 3, 1833. 

The Council voted, That General Sullivan be 
requested to draw up a circular, to be sent to all the 
counties in the State, containing a memorial to be 
addressed to the next general court, for the appoint- 
ment of a Committee on the subject of intemperance, 
and the laws touching the sale of spirituous liquors. 

May 27. 

The twenty-first anniversary of the Society was 
held this day, at St. Paul's Church. 

At the meeting for business, Rev. H. Hildreth 
made a statement of what he had done the past year. 
A conversation ensued respecting the practicability 
of rendering the Society more efficient than it had 
been, which took a very interesting direction, and 
continued till the hour appointed for the public 
services to commence. 

It was voted, That, when this meeting adj ourn, it 
be to next Friday evening, at eight o'clock, at the 
Reading Room of the Temperance Journal, at Me- 
chanics' Hall. 



40 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



May 31. 

The Society met, according to adjournment, at 
the Reading Room of the Temperance Journal. 

A discussion took place on the state of the So- 
ciety, its past and present relations to the temperance 
reformation, and respecting the ways and means by 
which its activity could be concentrated, and ren- 
dered most available to the end for which it was 
instituted. The debate continued with much interest 
until a late hour, when a Committee was appointed 
to take into consideration the whole condition of the 
Society, and to report, at an adjourned meeting, any 
amendments in the Constitution thereof that may 
seem to be expedient. 

June 14. 
' A special meeting of the Society was held, 
according to adjournment, at the Supreme Judicial 
Court Room. 

Mr. Sullivan, chairman of the Committee appointed 
at the last meeting, made a report, which concluded 
with several propositions for the action of the So- 
ciety, in the form of resolutions, of which the second 
affirmed, that total abstinence should be a funda- 
mental principle of the proceedings of the Society 
in this cause. 

A very interesting debate arose with regard to it, 
which was continued, at the same place, during six 
successive appointed meetings of the Society, and 
was finally terminated by the Society's adopting an 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. 



41 



article distinctly comprehending the pledge of total 
abstinence from intoxicating drinks. 

The President ruled, that this pledge did not 
apply to the old members of the Society, unless 
they severally subscribed to it. 

Other meetings were held to consider the remain- 
ing articles of the Constitution. 

At the final meeting, it was moved by Moses 
Grant, Esq. and voted, That it was expedient that 
a State Convention of the friends of temperance 
should be held in the town of Worcester, on the 
first Wednesday of September, or at such other time 
as the Council may designate. 

On motion of Rev. George Ripley, it was voted, 
That the friends of temperance in each town in 
the Commonwealth, and the temperance societies 
throughout the State, be requested to send two or 
more delegates to the Convention. 

It was voted, That fifty dollars be appropriated 
to defray the expenses incurred by the Correspond- 
ing Secretary, in giving the requisite notice of the 
proposed Convention. 

Voted, That a second edition of not less than four 
thousand copies of the address delivered by L. M. 
Sargent, Esq. in May last, be printed for the So- 
ciety. 

The following resolutions, proposed by Moses 
Grant, Esq. were unanimously adopted : — - 
4* 



42 



DOCUMENTS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



Whereas the cause of temperance can be promoted 
in no way more effectually than by a diffusion of 
all useful knowledge connected with the subject; 
and whereas the Temperance Journal, a paper print- 
ed in this city, and devoted entirely to the cause of 
temperance, and conducted hitherto with discretion 
and ability, is entitled to the support of the friends 
of temperance ; — 

Resolved, That the Massachusetts Society for the 
Suppression of Intemperance recommend this Jour- 
nal to the public, as entitled to their patronage. 

Resolved, That this Society agree to subscribe for 
one thousand copies of said Journal, for gratuitous 
distribution, in such manner as the government of 
the Society think most useful. 

The Secretary was directed to publish the pro- 
ceedings of the meeting in the daily newspapers. 

The meeting, having extended through nine even- 
ings, was dissolved. 

July 10. 

The Council voted, That the Corresponding Secre- 
tary be requested to prepare a circular invitation to 
the Convention about to be held at "Worcester, and 
to publish it and distribute it to the temperance 
societies and the friends of temperance throughout 
the State, and to request answers thereto. 

Aug. 15. 

A meeting of the Society was held at the Supreme 



FOR THE SUPPRESSION Or DTTEMPEB 



43 



Court Room, for the purpose of choosing delegates 

to the State Convention to be held at Worcester. 

on the third Wednesday of September. It was 

voted, That thirty gentlemen resident in the city, 

and thirty resident in the country, should be chosen 

delegates. 

Sept. 13. 

A letter was read to the Council from Commodore 
J. D. Elliott, U. S. X. expressing his deep interest 
in the temperance reform, and his intention to as- 
sist in the Convention at Worcester, if his official 
engagements did not prevent. 

The Convention thus recommended was held at 
Worcester. Sept. 18, 1833. 

A regularly notified meeting of the Massachusetts 
Society was convened at the same time and place. 
A Committee was appointed to confer with the 
Committee of the Convention, with instructions to 
report to the Society, if any, and if any what, alter- 
ations or additions will be necessary or convenient, 
in case it should be desired to constitute the Massa- 
chusetts Society the central, executive, or parent 
institution, with reference to a complete organiza- 
tion of the friends of temperance throughout the 
Commonwealth. 

Sept. 19. 

The Committee, after a conference with the Com- 
mittee of the Convention, offered to the Society's 
consideration a report, comprising a preamble and a 
draft of the Constitution so modified as to corre- 




44 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



spond with the new relations into which the Society 
was about to enter. 

CONSTITUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE 
SOCIETY. 

Whereas the Massachusetts Society for the Sup- 
pression of Intemperance was instituted twenty years 
ago, and at a time when the precise duties of the 
promoters of temperance could not be denned by 
any previous experience ; and whereas it is now 
known, that a great change has taken place in 
public opinion as to the use of intoxicating liquors, 
and that this change has chiefly been effected by 
means of temperance societies, adopting and incul- 
cating the principle of entire abstinence from the 
use of ardent spirit as drink ; and whereas the said 
Massachusetts Society, in common with other tem- 
perance societies, for several years past, has fully 
recognized the above principle in various resolutions 
unanimously adopted ; and whereas it is very desi- 
rable, that a more complete and efficient organiza- 
tion of the Commonwealth than has hitherto existed 
for the promotion of temperance should now be 
formed; — therefore we, the present members of the 
Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intem- 
perance, with grateful respect to the venerable 
founders of this institution, and with the earnest 
desire of promoting more effectually their humane 
and Christian design, do now adopt the following 
as the amended Constitution of said Society : — 



38ACHU8BTTS TEMFER.VXCE SOCIETY. 1 ') 

Art. I. — This Society shall be called The Mas- 
sachusetts Temperance Society ; and its members 
pledge themselves, that they will not use distilled 
spirit as drink, nor provide it as an article of 
refreshment for their friends, nor for persons in 
their employment ; that they will not engage in the 
manufacture of ardent spirit, nor traffic in the same ; 
and that, in all suitable ways, they will discounte- 
nance its use in the community. 

Art. II. — Any citizen of this Commonwealth 
may become a member of this Society, by signing 
this Constitution. It is provided, however, that all 
officers of temperance societies in this Common- 
wealth, adopting the principle of entire abstinence 
from ardent spirit as drink, shall, ex officio, be 
members of this Society ; and that each county 
society, and society embracing a number of towns, 
and adopting the above principle, shall be allowed 
to send not exceeding ten delegates to the meetings 
of this Society. 

Aht. III. — The officers of the Society shall be 
a President, Vice-President, a Corresponding Secre- 
tary, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and four 
Councillors ; who shall be elected at the annual 
meetings, and together constitute a Board of Coun- 
cil for managing its concerns. Three of the above 
officers, one being the President or Vice-President, 
shall be authorized to act at any meeting regularly 
called. It is provided, however, that the officers of 
county societies, and societies embracing a number 



46 



MENTS OP THE 



of towns, adopting the principle of entire abstinence, 
shall, ex officio, be members of the Board of Coun- 
cil ; it being expected, that said societies will fur- 
nish annual reports of their doings. 

Art. IV. — The officers of the Society shall have 
power to fill vacancies which may occur during the 
year for which they shall be elected ; to cause to be 
printed and distributed any tracts or essays ; to 
correspond with temperance societies ; to employ 
agents ; and to take all other measures which they 
may deem expedient to promote temperance. 

Art. V. — The annual meeting of the Society 
shall be held in Boston, in the month of May ; and 
other meetings may be held where and when the 
Board of Council may direct ; and whenever nine 
members of the Society shall, by written application 
addressed to the President, request him to call a 
meeting, he shall, on such request, call a meeting, 
as soon thereafter as may be. 

Art. VI. — The Board of Council shall appoint 
a Committee, to be called the Committee of Finance, 
whose duty it shall be to devise ways and means 
for collecting money by subscription, donation, or 
otherwise, for the use of this Society ; and who shall 
pay to the Treasurer all money by them so collected. 
And said Committee shall examine the Treasurer's 
accounts at some convenient time before the annual 
meeting, and certify the state thereof to the Board 
of Council, that the same may be reported to the 
Society at their annual meeting. And said Com- 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 47 

mittee shall have power to authorize suitable poi- 
sons, in the various parts of the Commonwealth, to 
receive subscriptions and donations for the benefit 
of the Society. 

Art. VII. — It shall be the duty of the Treasurer 
to pay all demands against the Society, which the 
Board of Council shall order ; and such order 
shall be a sufficient voucher for making such pay- 
ment. 

Art. VIII. — The Constitution may be altered 
at any annual meeting of the Society, provided that 
notice be given, in one or more papers printed in 
each of the counties, at least two weeks previous to 
said meeting, that it is intended to consider the 
expediency of altering the Constitution ; and at such 
meeting, or any adjournment thereof, the majority 
of the members present shall have power, by their 
duly ascertained votes, to alter and amend this 
Constitution, as they may think expedient. 

Sept. 24. 

The Council voted, That one hundred gentlemen 
be invited to attend a meeting, for the purpose of 
considering and taking the best means of raising 
money for the promotion of the cause of temperance ; 
and Messrs. Grant, Tappan, Brown, Sullivan, and 
Ripley, were appointed a Committee to make ar- 
rangements for procuring the above meeting. 

The Secretaries were directed to prepare an 
address of the Massachusetts Temperance Society 



48 



DOCUMENTS Or THE 



to the citizens of the Commonwealth, which may 
accompany the public address of the Convention. 

Sept. 30. 

In pursuance of the vote of the Council of Sep- 
tember 24, a meeting of citizens was held in the 
Supreme Court Room, on the 30th instant ; and 
the following resolutions were submitted by them 
to the Council : — 

Resolved, That it is expedient to have one or 
more permanent agents to lecture in this city and 
throughout this Commonwealth. 

That it is the duty of the present Society to 
circulate through the press useful temperance pub- 
lications, to interest and enlighten the public mind ; 
so that the cause of reform may continue to advance, 
and the melancholy evils of intemperance may be 
banished from our otherwise happy land. 

That it is expedient to raise at least five thousand 
dollars per annum, for five years, to carry into effect 
the foregoing resolutions ; and that the government 
of the Massachusetts Temperance Society be re- 
quested to take immediate measures to that end. 

Oct. 4. 

At a meeting of the Council at the house of the 
President, measures were taken to carry the above 
resolutions into effect. 

It was voted, That a public temperance meeting 
be called on Wednesday next ; and Messrs. Grant, 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



49 



Sullivan, Charming, and Ripley, were appointed to 
make the necessary arrangements. 

Oct. 9. 

A public meeting was held on the evening of 
October 9, at St. Paul's Church, by the invitation 
of the Council of the Massachusetts Temperance 
Society. 

After prayers by the Rev. Dr. Stone, the pur- 
pose of the meeting was stated by the President. 
He went into a detailed account of the history of 
the Massachusetts Society; the objects it had en- 
deavoured to accomplish in times past ; and the 
present relation which it bore to the cause of tem- 
perance in this Commonwealth, in consequence of 
the change which had recently been made in its 
organization. He urged the claims of the Society 
on the citizens of Boston, as an important means of 
affecting public sentiment, and expressed the ear- 
nest hope that it would not be permitted to languish 
for want of encouragement and support from the 
friends of temperance in our community. 

He was followed by the Rev. G. W. Blagden, who 
offered the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That this meeting view with approba- 
tion the proceedings of the Worcester Convention, 
in the organization of the Massachusetts Temper- 
ance Society, and are ready to give it the aid of 
their pecuniary support, their personal influence, 
and their prayers. 
5 



50 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



He supported the resolution in an able address, 
md concluded with an eloquent and touching appeal 
to Christians to make this cause a subject of their 
prayers. 

Horace Mann, Esq. then addressed the meeting, 
in support of the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That the pecuniary interests of grocers 
and retailers throughout the Commonwealth, and 
I illy in the city of Boston, would be greatly pro- 
moted by the entire disuse of ardent spirits, bee 
of the increased ability of the community to purchase 
other kinds of commodities in which they traffic. 

Rev. George Ripley offered the following resolu- 
tion : — 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, 
the past success of temperance societies has been 
such as to reward the most sanguine hopes of their 
friends, and to encourage their efforts for the 
future. 

He supported this resolution in an eloquent 
address, and concluded in the following words : — 
" We want nothing but sound argument and fair 
uasion in this matter. We want no violence, — 
no attacks on personal character, — no dividing the 
community into warring interests. We want no 
intemperate friends of temperance. Let that por- 
tion of the community which is already awake to 
the importance of this subject come forward with 
r aid. Let those who have tongues to speak, 
speak. Let those who have money to £ive, give. 



MASSACH1 MPERANCE SOCIETY. 51 

Let those who have hands to work, work. Let all 
ill professions, all interests, all parties. 
come up to this great cause of God and man. Let 
the magistrate lend the influence of his character, 
and the advocate the persuasion of his eloquence. 
Let the pulpit sound the alarm, and let the people 
spread it forth. Let the young men give the ardor 
of their youth, and the laboring men the strength of 
their arm, to carry forward this glorious work, till 
this beloved city of our habitation shall become a 
temperance city, — till old Massachusetts shall be- 
come a temperance State. Let this be done, Mr. 
President, and we may be sure that this great moral 
revolution will not go backwards." 

After Mr. Ripley concluded his remarks, the 
meeting adjourned till the next evening. 

Oct. 10. 

The adjourned meeting w r as held in the same 
place, and a very large audience was present. The 
meeting was opened with prayer by Rev. Samuel 
Barrett. 

George S. Hillard, Esq. offered the following 
resolution : — 

Resolved, That the promotion of temperance in 
this city and Commonwealth, is a subject of the 
deepest interest to the young men of Boston ; and 
that, by adopting prompt, vigorous, and prudent 
measures for its success, they would confer a great 
and lasting benefit on the community. 



52 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Rev. E. S. Gannett next addressed the meeting, 
in support of the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That much remains yet to be done for 
the promotion of temperance in the State of Massa- 
chusetts, and that the circumstances of the present 
time justify an increase of our efforts for that ob- 
ject. 

Rev. Mr. Taylor offered the following resolution : 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, 
the use of ardent spirits by seamen is attended 
with the most dangerous and fatal consequences ; 
and that it deeply concerns all who are interested 
in navigation, and in the welfare of the bodies and 
the souls of their seafaring brethren, to procure its 
speedy and total disuse. 

After the singing of a hymn by the choir of St. 
Paul's Church, the meeting adjourned sine die. 

Oct. 19. 

The Council voted, That the Secretary of this 
meeting be requested to write to the Rev. Hosea 
Hildreth, and request him to commence his opera- 
tions immediately as agent of the Society, by visiting 
the different counties in this Commonwealth, and 
collecting funds, as he has opportunity, in aid of the 
purposes of the Society, in addition to the regular 
duties of his agency. 

Dec. 14. 
The Council voted, That a Committee of publica- 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 






tion and of distribution, to consist of five members, 
be chosen, whose duty it shall be to select and 
revise papers for publication, and to make arrange- 
ments for their general distribution; and Messrs. 
Sullivan, Warren, Grant, Ripley, and Stevenson, 
were chosen. 



Jan. 11, 1834. 
The Council voted to furnish each member of the 
Legislature with a copy of Mr. Sargent's address 
before the Society, with a copy of the proceedings of 
the "Worcester Temperance Convention, and with 
copies of the tracts Nos. 1 and 2, published by the 
Council. 

Feb. 8. 

The publishing Committee reported to the Coun- 
cil as follows : — That, since the last meeting of the 
Council, they have caused to be sent to the Maine 
Temperance Convention, assembled at Augusta on 
the 5th instant, with a letter from the Secretary 
addressed to the President of the Convention, the 
following publications : — 

Copies of the Temperance Journal 1000 

Proceedings of the Temp. Convention at Worcester . 200 
Mr. Sargent's Address at Annual Meeting . . . . 200 
Mr. Sargent's Address before Seamen's Bethel Society 50 
Tracts 1 and 2, published by the Council . . . . 200 

The Secretary was instructed to send copies of 
the Society's publications to the Roman Catholic 
bishop. 

5* 






DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Feb. 24. 



The publishing Committee of the Council of the 
M issachusetts Temperance Society report the fol- 
lowing distribution of temperance publications, 
printed by vote of the Council : — 

Five editions of L. M. Sargent's Address before the 

Society in May last, a thousand copies each . . 5000 

Of the Temperance Journal 12920 

Distributed as follows, viz. : — Worcester Convention, 
600 ; Members of the Legislature, 425 ; at various 
manufacturing establishments, 1000 ; State Prison, 
Charlestown, 250 ; Maine State Convention, 1000 ; 
Legislative Temperance Society, 300 ; among la- 
borers in various parts of the city, 1175 ; for Rev. 
Mr. Taylor and Seamen's Bethel, 1759 ; the several 
City Missionaries and Ministers at Large, 975 ; at 
the various Temperance Lectures, after the Ad- 
dress by the Suffolk county agent, in the several 
wards, 5850. 

Of the Worcester Proceedings 1000 

to all the Clergy, Maine Convention, and other 
distinguished individuals. 

( )f the License Law, at the Worcester Convention, 

and to members of the Legislature 500 

Of Handbill, entitled " Hot Fire," &c 1 100 

Of Tract No. 1, entitled " Comparative Profits" &c. -"100 
Of Tract No. 2, entitled " Making Money," &c. . . 5000 
Distributed as follows : — Maine Temperance Con- 
vention, 300 ; Members of the Legislature, 450 ; 
various County Societies, and in the city, 1200; 
in the several wards of the city, during Mr. Frosl 
labors, 1000. 



KASSA0HU8BTTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. >> 

Amounting in all to 32,200 various publications, or 
equal to at least 1,200,000 duodecimo pages. 

Your Committee will only add, that, in their 
opinion, the expenditure of the Council for the fore- 
going publications has been productive of much 
good to the cause of temperance ; and, if judiciously 
persevered in, and extended as the Society's funds 
may justify, cannot fail to produce an abundant 
harvest of good fruit, and greatly advance the tem- 
perance reformation. — Respectfully submitted by 

' ^ > Publishing Committee. 

George Ripley, J 

Feb. 25. 

A letter was read to the Council from the agent, 
noticing the obstacle to the progress of temperance 
which is presented by the moderate use of ardent 
spirits by respectable men. 

March 7. 

Messrs. Flint and Grant were appointed by the 
Council a Committee to obtain a meeting of the mem- 
bers of the Legislature who are friendly to the tem- 
perance reform, at some convenient time before the 
end of the present session. 

March 26. 

The Council met at the Court House with mem- 
bers of the Legislature and other gentlemen, in 



56 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



accordance with the vote passed on the 7th instant. 
The meeting was numerous and respectable. 

The Chairman stated, that the meeting was called 
for the purpose of a conference on the means of pro- 
moting temperance in every part of the Common- 
wealth. He enumerated the principal efforts and 
operations of the Council and their friends, since 
the Worcester Convention ; — affirmed the strong 
desire of the Council, that county, town, and other 
local societies should be regularly organized and 
connected ; and that they should be in regular cor- 
respondence and relation with the central body, the 
Council of the State Society. 

Rev. George Ripley, in a long and animated 
address, urged the necessity of speedy attention to 
the organization of the local societies, as being vital 
to the progress and security of the temperance 
reform. 

He proposed the following resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted : — 

Voted, That, in the opinion of this meeting, the 
temperance organization proposed at the Worcester 
Convention is highly important to the success of 
the temperance cause in this Commonwealth ; and 
til at the friends of temperance now present be re- 
quested to exert their influence to carry it into full 
effect. 

That it is highly important for the county societies 
to take into their own hands the work of supplying 
the population within their limits with temperance 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



57 



publications, and that the tracts of the State Society 
and the Temperance Journal be recommended for 
this purpose. 

On the motion of Moses Grant, Esq. it was voted, 
That, in view of what has been done by the friends 
of temperance in one year in establishing temper- 
ance hotels and stores, in circulating temperance 
publications, and employing agents in the several 
counties of the State, and also by the voluntary 
public addresses and labors of gentlemen interested 
in this holy cause ; and in view of the recent and 
unprecedented success of Daniel Frost, Esq. in the 
county of Suffolk ; we have every encouragement to 
persevere in this benevolent enterprise, till the use 
of ardent spirit as a drink shall be banished from 
society, and, with it, four fifths of the crime and 
pauperism which so severely tax the time and purses 
of our fellow-citizens. 

April 4. 

A meeting of the Council was held at the house 
of the President. 

It was voted, That the Secretary be directed to 
request Dr. Edward G. Davis and Dr. Marshall S. 
Perry to write two tracts ; one on the physical and 
moral effects of drinking ardent spirits, and one 
more particularly on the physiological effects of 
alcohol on the human frame. 

It was voted to defray the expenses which Dr. 
Perry may incur in the prosecution of his inquiries. 



58 



MENTS OF THE 



and that payment be made for the manuscript copies 
of the above tracts. 

May 29. 

The twenty-second anniversary of the Society was 
observed, May 29, 1834. A large number of mem- 
bers, including representatives from most of the 
county societies and from many of the town societies, 
met for business in the Supreme Court Room, at 
half-past three, p.m. 

The agent, Rev. Mr. Hildreth, presented his 
annual report, which contained a view of the pro- 
gress and condition of the reform in all parts of the 
State. The report was accepted, and it was voted 
to publish it without delay. 

Moses Grant, Esq. read an extract from the 
Christian Register, relating to the prevalence of 
intemperance in the South Sea Islands, and the 
demoralizing effect produced there by the introduc- 
tion of ardent spirits from abroad. He offered 
the following preamble and resolution, which were 
unanimously adopted : — 

Whereas it appears by the publications of the 
British and Foreign Temperance Society, that 
the destructive effects of ardent spirit in the South 
Sea Islands are realized to a great extent, and that 
this spirit is carried to those islands, and sold by 
some of our own countrymen ; and whereas, in the 
opinion of the Massachusetts Temperance Society, 
the drinking of ardent spirit is injurious to the 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE BOCE 59 

bodies and souls of men, shortens life, and tends to 
prevent intellectual and moral improvement : — 
therefore resolved, That the furnishing of ardent 
spirit, to be used as a drink, and especially to the 
unevangelized and partially civilized tribes of our 
fellow-men, is, in our view, a violation of the great 
principles of morality, and ought to be discounte- 
nanced. 

Harrison Gray, Esq. offered the following resolu- 
tion, which was adopted : — 

Resolved, That this Society approve of the for- 
mation of the United States Temperance Union, and 
the resolutions adopted by that Union at their late 
meeting in Philadelphia. 

Alclen Bradford, Esq. of New Bedford, offered 
the following resolution, which was adopted : — 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Society, 
the establishment of temperance hotels in all parts 
of our State is much to be desired ; and that, where 
such already exist, it is the duty of the friends of 
temperance to use all suitable means to give them 
encouragement. 

June 26. 

It was voted to furnish to the members of the 
Convention — which, by invitation of the Young 
Men's Temperance Society, will meet in "Worcester 
on the first day of July — two hundred copies of 
the Twenty-first Annual Report ; and two hundred 
copies of tract No. 5, entitled " Plain Facts." 



60 DOCUMENTS OF THE 

Sept. 9. 
The Council voted, That an invitation, signed by 
the President and Secretary, be given to the officers 
of all the temperance societies in this city and vicin- 
ity to meet and consult on the best measures to be 
adopted to advance the temperance reformation. 

Sept. 25. 
The Council of the Massachusetts Temperance 
Society, having examined the Temperance Almanac 
published by Russell & Odiorne and Ford & Dam- 
rell, voted, That its extensive circulation would be 
useful to the temperance cause, and recommended 
to the several county societies to endeavor to pro- 
cure its introduction into all the towns of their 
counties, and in other ways to promote its circula- 
tion. 

Oct. 23. 

The following resolution, offered by Dr. Flint, 
was considered by the Council, and laid over to the 
next meeting : — 

Resolved, That it is expedient to prepare a peti- 
tion, and to present it to the next Legislature, 
praying them to institute a commission of able, 
candid, and faithful men, to investigate the subject 
of intemperance, in its bearings on the economical, 
political, and moral interests of the Commonwealth, 
and especially to ascertain the relation which the 
manufacture of and traffic in spirituous liquors 
sustain to this vice, with instructions to report the 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 61 

result of their inquiries to the next subsequent 
Legislature, together with a project of such enact- 
ments, if any, as their investigations shall indicate 
to be necessary or expedient. 



Jan. 10, 1835. 
The Council voted, that they approved of the 
plan proposed by the Suffolk County Temperance 
Society and the Young Men's Temperance Society, 
for a public meeting to be held in this city during 
the session of the Legislature ; and that they would 
unite in the same. 

Feb. 6. 

The Council voted, that they deemed it highly 
important that each of the clergymen in this city 
should be requested to address his congregation on 
the subject of temperance. 

The Council voted to invite Mr. Frost to come to 
Boston, and enter into the service of the Society as 
its agent. 

May 29. 

The twenty -third anniversary of this Society was 
held this evening, at the old Common Council Room, 
at half-past seven o'clock. 

Rev. H. C. Wright offered the following resolu- 
tion, which was unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That, this Society regard with the most 
cordial approbation those societies which are based 
on the principle of total abstinence from all intoxi- 
cating drinks, including fermented liquors. 
6 



62 DOCUMENTS OF THE 

Rev. John Pierpont introduced the following re- 
solve, which was unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That it is expedient to have a State 
Temperance Convention at Worcester, the present 
season : the time to be designated by the Council. 

July 31. 

The Council met at Dr. Warren's. 

It was voted, That a Committee be appointed to 
express the high sense the Council entertain of the 
eminent services rendered the cause of temperance 
by the late Rev. Hosea Hildreth, Corresponding 
Secretary of the Massachusetts Temperance Society ; 
and by the late Dr. J. Greeley Stevenson, its Re- 
cording Secretary. 

Voted, That the Temperance Convention meet at 
Worcester, on the first Wednesday in September. 

Voted, That Messrs. Grant, Flint, and Mann, be 
a Committee to make arrangements respecting the 
Convention, with power to change the day for meet- 
ing, if need be, and to instruct the Secretary to issue 
notices of the Convention without delay. 

Sept. 23 and 24. 

A Convention was accordingly held in the town 
of Worcester, and the following proceedings were 
adopted : — 

As it has been proved by the experience of thou- 
sands in the United States, of all classes of persons, 
and in all kinds of lawful business, that abstinence 



from the use. a* a bererae*. of all kiwi* of intoxi- 
cating liquor, is not <>&! t safe. V > t salntarr : and a* 
♦hi* in the onrr course in which it earn be rational 't 
rxpeeted that intemperate percon* will erer V 
WMeildr r.\rr;.':i: mi U dtt PJ/JBIflf mi I .. 
moral infiaenee of the temperate are the grand 
means of leading the intemperate to adopt and pnr- 

.-: > '...: ■/. 7 7:.*.^1 *,\ \:j:\i ~?-:->7i~ ^ 7. ; : ~ r 
good: there 

; ;-.;.; -.. V.- .: -7777:7 -:-:.-; m., v.; - 

- \".r.\ : :\ \~ \.- '.-.-- 't^'- :t„ ~~': '777777 .7. '* ^ r. 7 
e**peeiaHr by all members of temperance societies. 
the more rapid will be the p r ogicas of temperance. 
>:.-; *;; rr^iV;; ::.' ;./. 7:77- :;_i* 77"7a777^ - 
its evils will cease. 

-.*;. — :..'.:. ./.;.;../: :...-: \: ; '. . 7 7 77.v7. 77 
^1. 77777 ::.-; 7I-7 7: 77-77:7 :?.:'. 777 7.7. 7-- : 

:..\r.',:. -;.:-.;. ; :/i: -77.7;- ~ - '--'- — — -^ '-^- — '-- 
:r.':ir :V.7 77-. 777 777:77.: 77 7Z77_7>; -;„.:.. .: 

,;.:;. ;t->' rY.l:.- -.7 \; --._-/- ;:' :;. : Vr_:^: Sv^fr- 
•■--_;-: :.;: \r.;- ::v ::_.'_'..'..-. 7*777 :tt. 7777777 - - 
:;.-: -,.:'. ,;: ~ 7 7-7 v. 7 7 77 77.7777 :i.i: .7:7:7 -. 77 7 7 

"i-- :: '. .:• '.;*:: 7--;'-. 777 7-7, ,:,:- 7: -. .7 7 7 ^7.777 ii: 

3. Resohred. That the universal diiFbsion of m&r- 

7-77 77 z/z.zi 77 777 :r..r; :.:_ 7 7777:- ::' 
.:.-..::.—..:. z !:.::. -.: -777 7777:77- :: 7-7777 — 
:r'..7.i ::.: :v„- 7: !:. ::r-. it. : .7 77-7 77 :i:-r:^: v. 



6 1 DOCUMENTS OF THE 

extend the temperance reformation till its blessings 
shall be universal. 

4. Resolved, That the exporting from this country 
of intoxicating liquor, and its sale among the unen- 
lightened and partially civilized nations and tribes of 
men, constitute, in our view, an immoral traffic, and 
ought to be discontinued. 

5. Resolved, That the merchants and shipmasters 
who have excluded from their vessels intoxicating 
liquors as a drink have furnished an example, which, 
if universally followed, would save a vast multitude 
of valuable lives ; and that they ought to receive the 
patronage of the community. 

6. Resolved, That the practice of many insurance 
companies in insuring temperance vessels at a less 
premium than others, is highly beneficial to both 
merchants and seamen ; and, should it be adopted 
by insurance companies in general, would greatly 
promote the safety of property, and the preservation 
of human life. 

7. Resolved, That the increase of the number of 
public houses in which intoxicating liquor as a 
beverage is not sold, is highly auspicious to the 
cause of temperance ; and, provided their accommo- 
dations are in other respects, as they should be, 
equal or superior to other establishments, that they 
will greatly promote the comfort of travellers, and 
the welfare of the community, and should receive the 
patronage of the friends of temperance. 

8. Resolved, That, as the traffic in intoxicating 



. 






liquor, to be used as a drink. - the 

pecuniary burdens of the people, and is therefore 
unju-- - Is the community, it ought, in 

to be voluntarily and universally abandoned. 

9. Resolved. That it be recommended t 
friends of temperance to adopt the principle ot 
abstinence from the use of all in' g liquors 

as a drink. 

:he Keen- 
over the selling of ardei- . to be used 

;ield of and 

teaches the erroneous and destructive doctrine, that 
such \nd required by the public 

how that it is wrong, and 
the public good forbid ;ht, in our 

I of licensing 
the i hall only, so far as the voice c: 

le and the public goo 
community from ief. 

11. Resolved. That it be respectfully sugge- 

stion to the Maflaachusc mper~ 

ance :-lish in Boston, should they 

think proper, a Temperai: :. under the care 

of a suitable Committee, where every book, peri- 
odical, or other work of value, in reference to 
the tempera:: 11 be collected and kept 

for the consultation of all who may ae to 

" it. 

12. Resolved, That the temperance reform 

- 
6* 



66 DOCUMENTS OF THE 

of all men. and now especially commends itself to 
the attention of the educated and the wealthy. 

13. Resolved, that the temperance reform is 
wholly a moral reform ; and that it appeals to the 
affections, the conscience, and the intellect, in all 
the means it employs for its extension among men. 

14. Resolved, That, as the temperance reform is 
the cause of all men, — as it involves the deep- 
est interest alike of individuals and of nations, — 
it looks to all those who have especially devoted 
themselves to its active public service, for the exer- 
cise of a wise discretion, an independence of all 
merely individual personal opinions or prejudices, 
a wide philanthropy, and a consistent life. 

15. Resolved, That, as opposition has ever been 
manifested to the progress of whatever has had for 
its object a great change in the customs of indi- 
viduals or of nations, and as this opposition has had 
for its origin sincere doubts either of the expediency 
of the new measure, or of the means of prosecuting 
it, as well as mere prejudice, or an unenlightened 
self-interest, — it is the solemn duty of every sincere 
advocate of the temperance cause, in all his efforts 
foT its progress, to seek for light for himself, and to 
diffuse it among others in a wise, humble, and gen- 
erous spirit. 

16. Resolved, That, as intemperance has its causes 
in a vast variety of circumstances which are either 
peculiar to the individual, or which grow out of his 
social condition, the temperance reform is not to be 



BTY. 

regarded as temporary in its nature or operations : 

but that, to secure at all times its beneficial inrlu- 

s, it is to be chei tnd preserved among 

the permanent and most important institutions of 

17. Resolved, That, as the influc oman is 

essential to the permanent prosper. ery good 

$e, we cannot but rejoice 

ly exerted for the promotion of temperance ; 
and we would express the conviction. honld 

this influence be ly and universally ex- 

erted in favor of this cause, its triumphs would be 
comp] I its blessings extend to all future 

time. 

1 8. Res : the plan of the American 
Temperance Society for embodying a record of facts 
on this momentous subject in a permanent volume, 
with a view to the furnishing of a copy to every 
preacher, lawyer, physician, magistrate, officer of 
government, secretary of temperance society, teacher 
of youth, and educated young man. throughout the 

- : and also to the sending of a copy 
to each missionary of all denominations, who has 
gone, or may go. to heathen lands. — and to dis- 
tinguished philanthropic men in all parts of the 
world. — meets with our cordial approbation ; and 
its execution would, in our view, be the means of 
extensive blessing to the world. 

Voted. That the Council of the Massachusetts 
Temperance Society be requested to publish the 



68 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



proceedings of the Convention, and a suitable ad- 
dress to the people of Massachusetts on the present 
state of the temperance reform ; and that a copy be 
sent to each member of the Convention. 

Dec. 11. 

The Council voted, That Messrs. Lothrop and 
Flint be a Committee to consider what steps should 
be taken to extend the temperance reform to the 
Catholics of this city, and to obtain the co-operation 
of the Catholic Clergy. 



May 27, 1836. 

The Society held its twenty-fourth annual meet- 
ing on Friday evening, May 27. 

Moses Grant, Esq. spoke of the necessity of in- 
creased effort to carry on the temperance reform, 
and of the importance of raising more money than 
heretofore had been raised, as the Council had an 
agent about to commence his labors. He alluded 
to a recent Convention held in this city, where, in a 
few hours, over six thousand dollars had been raised 
for an object where there was less union than on 
the subject of temperance. He said the agent 
must have temperance publications to carry along 
with him, in order to sow the seed, as well as pre- 
pare the soil. For this, money was required. He 
concluded by introducing the following preamble 
and resolve, which were unanimously adopted : — 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 

While we view with gratitude the great progi 
of the temperance reformation, which had its efficient 
origin in the formation of the Massachusetts Society 
for the Suppression of Intemperance, and while we 
rejoice that the little one has become a mighty host, 
yet we have melancholy evidences of the continued 
effects of intemperance in the pauperism and crime 
which prevail about us ; — 

Therefore resolved, That we consider it our duty 
to raise in this State five thousand dollars, to be 
expended in employing agents and circulating pub- 
lications for the progress of the sacred cause the 
present year. 

Rev. Mr. Hinds introduced the following resolu- 
tion, with a few remarks on the importance of 
training up the young correctly : : — 

Resolved, That this Society most cordially approve 
of all judicious measures of interesting the young 
in the great subject of temperance, that they may 
be trained to avoid the use of intoxicating liquors. 

J. C. Converse, Esq. offered the following reso- 
lution : — 

Resolved, That we cordially approve of the exer- 
tions making by the Boston Port Society, and the 
Seaman's Friend Society, to establish temperance 
boarding-houses for seamen ; and that the aid of all 
the friends of temperance should be given to pre- 
vent our seafaring brethren from the fatal effects of 
intemperance. — Adopted. 

After an appropriate notice of the Irish character, 



70 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



honorable to the people as a nation, and an allusion 
to the mighty influence which the Irish Temperance 
Society, recently formed in this city, would have 
on the great cause, Stephen Fairbanks, Esq. offered 
the following resolution : — 

Resolved, That it affords us peculiar pleasure to 
know, that a temperance society has recently been 
formed in this city, by our Irish brethren, on the 
highly praiseworthy principle of an entire freedom 
from all sectarian difference in religion. — Adopted. 

Otis Thompson, Esq. offered the following reso- 
lution : — 

Resolved, That we most cordially approve of the 
recommendation of the American Temperance Union 
for a Convention to be held at Saratoga in August 
next, and that this Society will co-operate in carry- 
ing the same into effect. — Adopted. 

Horace Mann, Esq. made an address, of some 
length, upon the following important resolves ; in 
which he noticed the progress of the temperance 
cause, the difficulties it had overcome, and its pres- 
ent prospects. He paid a just tribute of praise to 
the city government and county commissioners, for 
their firm and decided measures in aid of the friends 
of temperance, who were laboring for the happi- 
ness of the community. — The resolutions were 
adopted. 

Resolved, That the Massachusetts Society regard 
with sincere and hearty approbation the co-operation 
of the city government of Boston, in promoting the 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 71 

cause of temperance, both by diminishing the num- 
ber of licenses granted, and by withholding inn- 
holders' licenses from applicants who have not the 
qualifications required by law. 

Resolved, That the county commissioners of the 
several counties of the Commonwealth, who have 
refused to grant licenses for the sale of ardent spirits, 
deserve the warmest thanks of all the friends of 
humanity. 

Ruggles Slack, Esq. offered the following resolu- 
tion : — 

Resolved, That it be recommended to the Council 
of this Society to consider the subject of a New 
England Convention of the friends of temperance, to 
be holden at such time and place as may be thought 
best calculated to cause a deeper interest in this 
momentous subject. — Adopted. 

The meeting was uncommonly interesting ; and 
much zeal was evinced, which, it is believed, will 
result in vigorous action to advance the blessings of 
temperance. 



Jan. 21, 1837. 

The Council met at the President's, and adopted 
the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, That the Council take measures for the 
celebration of the simultaneous meeting of the friends 
of temperance, on the last Tuesday of February next, 
at the Odeon, 



72 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Resolved, That gentlemen be invited to address 
this meeting on the subject of the license laws, and 
on the free use of intoxicating drinks in mixed com- 
panies ; and also on the importance of an abundant 
and constant supply of pure water, as a means of 
temperance and health. 

Resolved, That application be made to Messrs. 
Mann, Browuson, Alvord, Flint, G. S. Hillard, 
Taylor, and Rantoul. 

May 26. 

The annual meeting of the Massachusetts Tem- 
perance Society was held on Friday evening, the 
26th of May, 1837, at the Old Court House. 

After the reading of the annual report, John Tap- 
pan, Esq. observed that he had listened to it with 
great pleasure, but would submit, for the considera- 
tion of the Society, two amendments, qualifying 
some remarks in the report on the influence of the 
rich, especially in cities and large towns, on the pro- 
gress of the reform, and on the tendency of the 
times to produce intemperance. 

Stephen Fairbanks, Esq. seconded the motion for 
these amendments, and supported them by a few 
pertinent observations. Mr. Sheafe also addressed 
the meeting on the same points. The amendments 
were unanimously adopted. 

The report is a very interesting document, show- 
ing the doings of the Council during the past year, 
and the present state of the temperance reform. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. to 

Peter Mackintosh, Esq. introduced the following 
resolution with a few appropriate remarks : — 

Resolved, That we view with much pleasure the 
steady progress of the temperance reform, and in 
particular within our own State, where, in six of 
the fourteen counties, no licenses are granted for the 
sale of ardent spirits. — The resolve was adopted. 

Rev. F. T. Gray addressed the meeting in a very 
impressive and touching manner. Alluding to his 
daily walks as one of the ministers to the poor, he 
stated facts calculated to awaken the most indiffer- 
ent, and increase the zeal of the best friends of 
temperance. He particularly dwelt on the immense 
good the circulation of the Society's publications 
had done, and stated remarkable instances of the 
blessed influences of these winged messengers of 
mercy. He urged the importance of continued 
effort in the cause, from the encouragement fur- 
nished by the deep interest of the young in this 
subject. He presented the following resolution, 
which was adopted : — 

Resolved, That in no view of the great subject of 
temperance are we so much encouraged to expect its 
final triumph, as in our efforts to train up the young 
in total at^tinence from the use of all intoxicating 
drinks. 

John Ball, Esq. offered the following important 
resolutions in a brief address, in which he urged 
the duty of enforcing the salutary law passed at the 
recent session of the Legislature. He stated some 



7 1 DOCUMENTS OF THE 

appalling facts on the use of intoxicating drinks 
on the Sabbath, and the consequent awful effects on 
society, and in particular on the young men, too 
many of whom spent the day of sacred rest in dis- 
sipation. 

He was followed by Moses Grant, Esq. on the 
subject of a vigorous effort to sustain the law in 
question. He stated that public opinion was in its 
favor, and that it only needed our police officers to 
be firm and decided temperance men to carry it into 
effect. 

Resolved, That this Society regard the law passed 
at the recent session of the Legislature, prohibiting 
the sale of all intoxicating drinks on the Sabbath, 
as one of the most wise and salutary ever enacted, as 
it adopts the highest principles of a moral reforma- 
tion, by substituting the prevention of an evil for 
its remedy. 

Resolved, That we consider it due to the Legisla- 
ture, as well as to the public, to give all the aid in 
our power in enforcing the law referred to ; and 
that we believe such a service would be one of the 
most patriotic and benevolent which a good citizen 
could render to the State. 

The Rev. E. T. Taylor, on the same resolves, 
spoke in a truly happy and powerful manner on the 
violation of the Sabbath by selling intoxicating 
liquors, and its direful influence on his " sailor- 
boys." He dwelt on the great progress the cause 
I ad made the past year, during which he had lee- 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. I« 

tared in various parts of the country ; and he regret- 
ted to see, that Boston was far behind the country 
in the good cause of temperance. He urged the 
need of an efficient police, to see that the law of 
the Sabbath, on the use of intoxicating liquor, was 
enforced. 

Dr. Walter Channing introduced the following 
resolution with a few remarks on the necessity of 
active, persevering efforts in carrying forward the 
cause of temperance, and on the utility of conven- 
tions for that purpose : — 

Resolved, That it be recommended to the Council 
of this Society to consider the expediency of calling 
a State or New England Convention of the friends 
of temperance, to be convened at such time and 
place as they may appoint, to consider the present 
state of the temperance reform. 



June 1, 1838. 

The annual meeting of the Society, for business, 
was held in the Common Council Room, old Court 
House, Friday evening, June 1. 

From the report of the publishing Committee, it 
appears that the publications of the Society the past 
year amounted to 340,000 duodecimo pages. The 
various works embraced in this enumeration have 
been extensively and gratuitously circulated through- 
out the Commonwealth. 

The following resolution, offered to the meeting 
by Chas. Tappan, Esq. was unanimously adopted : — 



76 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Resolved, That, in order to carry on the temper- 
ance reform, and maintain the high ground on which 
it now stands, it is expedient to raise three thousand 
dollars for the employment of agents and publishing 
temperance documents. 

Col. J. M. Fessenden offered the following reso- 
lutions, which were also unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That the temperance reform is a moral 
reform ; that, through its whole history, it has 
labored to produce moral convictions in regard to 
its great principles, and to make these principles 
the rules of practice. 

Resolved, That, in conformity with the moral 
character of this cause, its friends, having by pre- 
cept and by example taught its doctrines every- 
where, both to the individual and to communities, 
as they believe, have obtained for the cause the 
public favor, and, in the States of Tennesee and 
Massachusetts, received for the reform the strongest 
expression of public moral sentiment ; viz. a repeal 
of the existing license laws, and the passage of new 
laws making the retail traffic in ardent spirits, as 
drink, penal. 

Resolved, That, in our opinion, the formation of 
temperance societies, upon such principles as the 
views of different communities may deem best, is to 
be encouraged, in the belief that an honest desire 
and purpose to promote temperance must always 
produce good results ; and in the further belief, that 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



77 



in due time the utmost desirable conformity will be 
brought about. 

Resolved, That it is the earnest wish of all the 
friends of this cause to bring every one within its 
happy, life-giving influence ; and that they feel it to 
be their duty to receive into their number every 
human being, of whatever temperance creed, who, 
in a sincere desire for light and for strength, asks 
to be enlisted into its service. 

Resolved, That at no period of its history has 
the cause presented a stronger claim on public con- 
fidence and support, than at the present time ; and 
that its friends are to enter upon and continue in 
its labors with renewed zeal, and neither to tire nor 
to faint, while any, the least, occasion remains for 
their ministry. This work is a noble work, and is 
intimately connected with any and every attempt to 
promote the best progress of the human race. 

Resolved, That we regard the present time as 
singularly favorable for the adoption and practice 
of the principles of this reform. When was there a 
period in our history, when the whole circumstances 
of the nation were so seriously depressed ; when 
capital in all its kinds, and industry in all its uses, 
were so prostrated ; and when the question of rem- 
edy was so serious, and about which the answer is 
so fearfully perplexed ? At such a time, let the 
friends of this cause carry forward the great work. 
Let them interest in it the good, the wise, and the 
powerful, throughout the land, as an institution 
7* 



78 



DOCUMENTS OF TIIE 



having public virtue for its object, and public order 
and prosperity for its surest rewards. 

Resolved, That this cause regards the young as 
its peculiar hope ; that, in educating them on its 
principles, a community will at length be formed, 
upon whom the strong power of habit, of interest, 
or prejudice, will have no influence ; that they will 
revise the whole existing code of society, and form 
one having for its first principle and basis the para- 
mount obligation of perfect temperance. 

Resolved, That the simultaneous meetings of the 
friends of temperance throughout the world are an 
expression of public sentiment, in regard to the 
reform, of deep interest and importance ; and that 
their effect must be to promote it, by calling to its 
ranks such individuals and classes as have, from 
indifference, prejudice, or contempt, been directly 
or indirectly opposed to its progress. 

Rev. Gardiner B. Perry offered the following 
resolution, which was also adopted : — 

Resolved, That we view with much satisfaction 
the praiseworthy example of those persons who have 
at any time, and some quite recently, relinquished 
the traffic in ardent spirits. 

In support of this resolution, the mover spoke of 
instances in which the traffic had been abandoned. 
One had particularly interested him. A person 
with whom he was well acquainted had long sold 
ardent spirits as drink, and had defended the sale 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 79 

on the ground of law alone. It was legal to sell, 
and what was legal was right ; nay, he urged the 
ground of duty as requiring him to sell spirits. 
" But," said he, " when the law was changed, I at 
once gave up the traffic I was resolved to be con- 
sistent ; and what I had done under the sanction of 
law, I resolved at once not to do when the law was 
repealed ; and I have sold no spirits since." — This 
instance is a very important and striking one. It 
shows a fixed purpose to be governed, in a matter 
of supposed great interest, by the law of the State ; 
a purpose as honorable as it is wise. 

The following resolution was offered by Moses 
Grant, Esq. in order to carry into effect the first 
resolution : — ■ 

Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed 
to collect by subscription the sum of three thousand 
dollars, for the purposes of the Society the ensuing 
year. 

Few meetings of the Society have been more 
interesting than the one of which the above is a brief 
record. Every one present manifested the deepest 
concern for the success of the cause in support of 
which they had come together. Every thing that 
was said show€d the strongest confidence in its final 
success. It was in its truth that this confidence 
was seen to have its growth ; and, with this principle 
for its sanction, it must prevail. 



80 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



May 30, 1839. 

At the annual meeting of the Society, the follow- 
ing resolves were presented and adopted : — 

Resolved, That the law of 1838 deserves our sup- 
port. The principles are fully established, viz. that 
the retail traffic in spirituous liquors in small quan- 
tities is injurious to individuals, to families, and to 
communities ; and that it is the duty of legislators 
to make such laws as will effectually abate such 
" nuisance." 

Resolved, That the friends of temperance must 
regard the present as a most important time in ■ 
this cause. Never was public attention more fully 
awakened to its interests ; never was the prospect 
brighter of its widest success. 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this meeting, 
the following declaration, contained in a minority 
report of a Committee of the Legislature of 1839 on 
the " Law regulating the sale of spirituous liquors," 
is sound doctrine ; viz. : — 

" All common dram-shops are hereby declared to 
be public nuisances ; and it shall be the duty of the 
Selectmen of any town, and of the Mayor and Alder- 
men of any city, to proceed against any common 
dram-shop within said town or city, and the person 
or persons keeping the same, in the same manner 
that a Board of Health or of health officers is autho- 
rized by the Revised Statutes to proceed in the 
prosecution for and removal of nuisances, sources of 
filth, and causes of sickness." — Sec. 4, p. 27. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



81 



Resolved, That those individuals who, amid the 
reproach and obloquy which have been cast upon 
them by the opponents of the law of 1838, with 
great labor and self-sacrifice are exerting themselves 
effectually to enforce said law, are well deserving 
the approbation and gratitude of every friend of 
temperance. 

Resolved, That we hear with great pleasure that 
the friends of temperance in this city propose to 
celebrate the ensuing 4th of July on temperance 
principles, by a public dinner at Faneuil Hall ; and 
we hope that temperance celebrations of the day 
may be held throughout the Commonwealth. 



May 29, 1840. 

J. H. Purkitt, Esq. from a Committee of the Coun- 
cil, offered the following resolutions : — 

1. Resolved, That the temperance cause holds a 
most responsible and important place in the system 
of agencies by which the world is to be morally 
" redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled." 

2. That the Society renewedly commend the 
cause of temperance to the blessing of Almighty 
God, to, his servants in the churches, and to the 
philanthropists of the world. 

3. That it is matter of devout gratitude, that the 
cause of temperance is the cause of the world ; and 
that, among all nations, men may labor in it with 
the hope of equal success. 



82 



DOCUMENTS OP THE 



4. That, on a review of the operations of this 
Society, and the Divine favor with which they have 
been attended, there is no reason for discourage- 
ment ; but, on the contrary, the Society perceive 
abundant cause for a grateful continuance and more 
zealous prosecution of their labors during the ensu- 
ing year. 

5. That this Society invite the serious attention 
of clergymen, and of Christians generally, to the 
powerful moral influence that, with the Divine 
blessing, may be exerted by their instrumentality 
in connection with this glorious work ; and that 
they be requested to give to it, and to all engaged 
in it, their cordial and active co-operation. 

6. Resolved, That the principles of the temper- 
ance reform are principles of morality and reli- 
gion ; that they have a deep foundation, and are 
warmly cherished by the good and the wise, both 
in Europe and America ; that blessings multiply 
wherever they have hitherto prevailed, in every part 
of our country and of the world ; and that they 
embrace within their benevolent scope every portion 
of the human family, — showering their benefits on 
all alike, whether poor or rich, whether bond or 
free. 

7. Resolved, That the principles of temperance, 
by laying the foundation of public and private vir- 
tue, provide the best preservative for our rights and 
liberties, and the best guarantee for the peace 
and good order of society ; and that, in this view, 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



83 



they deserve the special patronage of the statesman 
and the patriot. 

8. Resolved, That the principle, that the tempter 
is always more guilty than the tempted, the seducer 
than the seduced, the corrupter than the corrupted, 
and the betrayer than the betrayed, is equitable in 
law, correct in morals, and sanctioned by the Scrip- 
tures ; — ivhereas, according to the code of law under 
the Mosaic dispensation, " If an ox gore a man or a 
woman that they die, then the ox shall be stoned, 
but the owner shall be quit ; but if the ox were 
wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath 
been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept 
him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman, 
the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be 
put to death ; " — and whereas the principle of this 
law is eternal and unchangeable, and consequently 
as imperative upon us as on any individuals or peo- 
ple in past time : therefore, 

9. Resolved, That every man is responsible for 
" the natural and foreseen consequences of his acts," 
and for all the evils which result from his selfish- 
ness, or his indifference to the welfare and lives of 
others. 

10. Resolved, That this Society most respectfully 
and earnestly entreat all those dealers in intoxicating 
drinks who recognize the supremacy of the moral 
sentiments and of conscience, and their accounta- 
bility to God, to pause and reflect on the nature 
and consequence of their business, and to ask them- 



84 DOCUMENTS OF THE 

selves, whether, in view of the light which has been 
shed on their understandings, — in view of the 
solemn and awful truths which have been promul- 
gated within their hearing and reach, — and, above 
all, in view of the judgment of the great day, — 
they ought not instantly to abandon a business 
pregnant with such untold and unutterable evils. 
These resolutions were unanimously adopted. 

Stephen Fairbanks, Esq. next offered the follow- 
ing preamble and resolutions : — 

Whereas distilled spirits have, from the founda- 
tion of our government, been a common article of 
merchandise, under a limited restriction only, in 
consequence of which the State sovereignties have 
formed penal enactments, by their authority, not 
only embarrassing, but often of a tendency to retard 
the temperance reform : therefore 

Resolved, That, in the opinion of this Society, 
the friends of mankind and the lovers of humanity 
throughout this extended country should concen- 
trate their strength, and make an appeal to the 
Congress of the nation, for the enactment of such 
prohibitory laws, in relation to the importation and 
distillation of spirits, as in their wisdom will best 
prevent the alarming evils of intemperance. 

Resolved, That the recent progress of the tempe- 
rance reform in Ireland is an occurrence which calls 
tor the most sincere and devout thankfulness of 
every friend of true freedom. May the pioneers 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 85 

and veterans in the cause see to it that they emulate 
the noble-hearted people of that country, in the 
judiciousness of the means by which such astonish- 
ing effects have been produced. 

The following resolution was offered by Mose* 
Grant, Esq. and adopted : — 

Resolved, That it is expedient to raise three thou- 
sand dollars, the present year, to extend the opera- 
tions of the Society, and to advance the temperance 
reform ; and that the Council will adopt all such 
measures as may enable them to carry this resolve 
into effect. 

At the close of this meeting, Mr. Mellen moved, 
That it be recommended to the Council to consider 
the expediency of addressing a communication to the 
Emperor of China, expressing the hearty sympathy 
of this Society in his noble efforts to suppress the 
opium trade, and so to remove from his subjects 
the most fruitful source of misery and crime, and to 
offer the sincerest wishes of the Society for the 
success of his humane and most highly honored 
determination. 



May 28, 1841. 

The twenty-ninth anniversary of the Massachu- 
setts Temperance Society was celebrated, May 28, 
1841. 

The following resolutions were introduced by the 
Secretary : — 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 

1 . Resolved, That from the whole world is coming 
a voice of promise and encouragement to this cause, 
hitherto unknown to it ; that this wide sympathy 
demands its fullest expression from those who have 
been longest in the temperance ranks, and, with 
this expression, a liberal provision for the daily 
incr easing pecuniary necessities of the cause. 

2. Resolved, That the new, the wholly original 
form in which the reform now presents itself, — 
that of the intemperate themselves becoming its 
apostles, and making its most efficient societies, — 
is a fact, not only in the history of the cause, but in 
the world itself, of unparalleled interest ; and as it 
is a direct manifestation of the blessed influence of 
God himself upon men, so it demands our deep, our 
devout gratitude. 

3. Resolved, That the visits of Messrs. Hawkins 
and Wright, delegates from the Baltimore Wash- 
mgtonian Temperance Society, should be regarded 
as a public benefit to this city and to this State, inas- 
much as, by their eloquent and frequent appeals, 
they are awakening the intemperate here from the 
sleep of death ; are giving peace to many families ; 
will save to the public treasury a great waste of 
money, the produce of honest industry ; and thus 
increase to every citizen the means of personal and 
relative good. 

. Resolved, That, while the reformed are regard- 
thus blessed, a duty is left for us to perform : 
tial wo shall be answerable for its ne 



3 TEMPERANCE 80( I 

This duty is such a provision for their moral as well 
as physical wants, as is demanded by their whole 
condition and circumstances, and the neglect to 
provide which may lead to the most disastrous 
consequences. 

5. Resolved, That to those who have entered 
the ranks of temperance, and who have hitherto 
pursued, but have now abandoned, a business which 
directly produced intemperance, by which they got 
great gain, — to all such we say from the heart, 
" Welcome, brothers ; welcome, advocates for the 
best good of man ; welcome, ye who so cheerfully 
offered on the altar of humanity your willing sacri- 
fice ! and may you be blessed of God that you have 
done so." 

6. Resolved, that our city government, in refusing 
licenses to the great majority of applicants, have 
done service to the cause ; but what a mightier work 
and service is this, which has reformed the drunk- 
ard, — which has shut up the bar-room, — which 
has made the trafficker an active agent in the good 
cause ! Truly, in a few days, licenses will be a 
byeword and a reproach, and men will shrink from 
them as from "nuisances" and a pollution; the 
Committee for granting them will come to an end ; 
and a government only for good, for peace, for joy, 
to the whole city, will no longer be asked to be the 
agents in the city's widest misery. 

7. Resolved, That the news from Ireland, by every 
fortnight's steamer, is full of the progress of tempe- 



DOCUMENTS OP THE 



ranee ; and we renewedly bid it " God speed." To 
the Irish in our own city and land who have come 
heart and soul to the cause, we give a hearty wel- 
come, and say to them, and to their countrymen 
everywhere, " Be faithful to the good cause." 

8. Resolved, That an anniversary of this Society 
should never pass by, without a distinct reference 
to its origin and its founders. It had its origin in 
the wide-spread and increasing intemperance of the 
time. It was founded by wise and good men, who 
had only in view the public good. Let the names 
of Dexter, of Dane, of Strong, of Lathrop, and of 
their associates, be ever held dear by the friends 
of the cause. They were among the first, who, by 
a wide State organization, attempted to arouse the 
minds of the State, the nation, and the world, to 
the paramount claims of a temperance reformation. 



Feb. 8, 1845. 

At a meeting of the Council at the house of the 
President, a letter was read from J. J. Dixwell, Esq. 
an executor of the will of the late John Parker, to 
Dr. J. C. Warren, President of the Society, inform- 
ing him that in said will a legacy of four thousand 
dollars was made to the Massachusetts Temperance 
Society, and stating that the money was ready to be 
paid over to the Society, whenever a proper discharge 
was made to him, the executor, of all obligations 
to any other body or persons for said legacy. 






MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 89 

It was voted, That the Society gratefully accept 
the legacy of four thousand dollars, of the late John 
Parker, to the Massachusetts Temperance Society. 

Feb. 15. 

Mr. Dixwell having stated that he should not feel 
authorized to pay over the money, unless the Society 
should first be incorporated, it was voted, at a meet- 
ing of the Council, That the Society apply for an act 
of incorporation of the general court in its present 
session. 

March 25. 

NEW ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIETY. 

A meeting of petitioners for an act of incorpora- 
tion, under the style and title of the " Massachu- 
setts Temperance Society," was held this day in 
Hall No. 3, Tremont Temple. Present — John 
Collins Warren, Henry Edwards, Stephen Fair- 
banks, Charles Brown, Moses Grant, Walter Chan- 
ning. 

It was voted, That the meeting be organized by 
choosing a Chairman and a Secretary. 

John C. Warren was chosen Chairman ; Walter 
Channing, Secretary. 

The following act of incorporation was then read, 
and unanimously adopted : — 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. — In the year 
one thousand eight hundred and forty-five. — An 
8* 



90 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



act to incorporate the Massachusetts Temperance 
Society. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives in general court assembled, and by the 
authority of the same, as follows : — 

Sec. 1. — John C. Warren, Moses Grant, Wal- 
ter Channing, Stephen Fairbanks, Henry Edwards, 
Charles Brown, their associates and successors, are 
hereby made a corporation, by the name of the Mas- 
sachusetts Temperance Society, with all the powers 
and privileges, and subject to all the duties, restric- 
tions, and liabilities, set forth in the forty-fourth 
chapter of the Revised Statutes. 

Sec. 2. — The said corporation may take and hold 
real and personal estate to an amount not exceeding 
fifty thousand dollars, provided that the annual in- 
come thereof shall be appropriated to the purpose of 
promoting the cause of temperance. 

Sec. 3. — The said corporation shall be capable 
in law to receive any bequest heretofore made or 
given to the association heretofore known as the 
Massachusetts Temperance Society. 

Sec. 4. — This act shall take effect from and 
after its passage. 

House of Representatives, March. 4, 1845. — Passed to 
be enacted, Samuel H. W alley, Jun., Speaker. 

In Senate, March 5, 1845. — Passed to be enacted, 
Levi Lincoln, President. 

March 5, 1845. — Approved, Geo. N. Briggs. 

Secretary's Office, March 7, 1845. — A true copy. — 
Attest: John G. Palfrey, Secretary. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



91 



NEW CONSTITUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TEMPE- 
RANCE SOCIETY 

Messrs. Grant and Brown were chosen a Commit- 
tee to report a Constitution. 

The following draft of a Constitution was report- 
ed, discussed, and adopted : — 



Art. I. — Title. 

This Society shall be called the Massachusetts 
Temperance Society, 

Art. II. — Membership. 
Any citizen of Massachusetts may become a mem- 
ber of this Society, by signing this Constitution, by 
paying five dollars on admission, and by paying 
two dollars annually while he retains his member- 
ship. 

Art. III. — Officers. 

The officers of the Society shall be a President, a 
Vice-President, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and four 
Councillors, who shall be elected at the annual 
meeting ; hold office until they resign, or others are 
elected in their stead ; and shall together constitute 
a Board of Council for managing its concerns. 
Three of the above officers, one being the President 
or Vice-President, shall be a quorum authorized to 
act at any meeting regularly called. 



92 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Art. IV. — Filling Vacancies, fyc. 

The officers of the Society shall have power to 
fill vacancies in their number, to cause to be printed 
tracts or essays, to correspond with temperance 
societies, to employ agents, and to take all other 
measures which they may deem expedient to pro- 
mote temperance. 

Art. V. — Meetings. 

The annual meeting shall be held in Boston, in 
the month of March ; and other meetings may be 
held where and when the Board of Council may 
direct. And whenever nine members of the Society 
shall, by written application addressed to the Presi- 
dent, request him to call a meeting, he shall call 
one as soon thereafter as may be. 

Art. VI. — Finance Committee. 

The President, Treasurer, and one Councillor, for 
the time being, shall be a Finance Committee, to 
accept and receive such donations as have been or 
may be made to the Society, and to invest all such as 
may equal or exceed five hundred dollars in the Hos- 
pital Life Insurance Office ; which investments shall 
for ever constitute a permanent fund, the income of 
which shall be appropriated to the current expenses 
of the Society. The same Committee shall audit 
the Treasurer's account, and report, at the annual 
meeting, the state of the treasury. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 93 



Art. VII. — Treasurer. 

It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to pay all 
demands against the Society; the approval of the 
President, or, in his absence, of the Vice-President, 
being a sufficient voucher for making such payment. 

Art. VIII. — Alterations. 

This Constitution may be altered at any annual 
meeting of the Society, provided that notice of such 
intended alteration be given at a previous meeting 
of the Society, and provided that such notice be 
published in the advertisement for the annual meet- 
ing, and two thirds of the members present vote for 
such alteration. 



Voted, That Messrs. Edwards and Brown be a 
Committee to report the names of members. 
Meeting of the Society dissolved. 



The Board of Council met immediately after the 
meeting of the Society was dissolved. 

Mr. Charles Brown was chosen a member of the 
Financial Committee. 

Voted, That the President, John C. Warren; 
Treasurer, Moses Grant ; and Charles Brown, Coun- 
cillor of the Massachusetts Temperance Society, be 
a Committee to receive the legacy from the execu- 
tors of the last will of the late John Parker, and 
give the necessary vouchers therefor. 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 

March 27, 1846. 

At a meeting of the Council at the house of the 
President, the Committee chosen to receive the leg- 
acy of four thousand dollars reported that they had 
duly received the same, — had given the required 
vouchers, and had placed it in the Massachusetts 
Hospital Life Insurance Company in trust for the 
use of the Society, and had received a policy for 
the same, which they gave into the hands of the 
President of the Society. 

It was voted, That the President be authorized to 
deliver to the Treasurer the policy received of the 
Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. 

The President accordingly delivered the policy to 
the Treasurer. 

Within the last two years, the Council have issued 
various questions for prize dissertations relating to 
the best means for advancing the cause of temper- 
ance, and have paid premiums to those persons 
whose dissertations were considered worthy. They 
have also printed them, and given to them an exten- 
sive circulation. 



Jan. 1, 1848. 

The Council met at the house of the President, 
January 1, 1848. 

It was voted, That the President and Secretary 
be a Committee to publish an article, by Dr. Forbes, 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 95 

in the British and Foreign Medical Review- 
October, 1847, entitled, " The Physiological Effects 
of Alcoholic Drinks;" and, in an introduction, to 
give some account of the origin of the temperance 
movement in this country. 

Feb. 9. 

A meeting of the Board of Council was held at 
the house of the President. 

Dr. Warren presented a manuscript, containing 
. review of the past history of the Society, with 
extracts from the Records, together with the very 
able article by Dr. Forbes, of England, and pub- 
lished in the British and Foreign Medical Review. 
A considerable portion of the manuscript was read 
Le. Board ; and it was voted to commit the whole 
subject to the same Committee, with instructions to 
publish the manuscript and Dr. Forbes' s article ; 
or such parts of them, and in such form, as they 
deem expedient. 



CONCLUSION. 

From the earliest period of the Society, measures 
taken to give the greatest publicity to its 
acts. Meetings were fully notified by the public 
press. Circulars, embracing the plans of the So- 
ciety, the statistics of the reform, and, indeed, all 
that came within its objects, were diffused through- 



96 



DOCUMENTS OP THE 



out the Commonwealth to auxiliary societies, to 
clergymen, to physicians, and other influential men. 
The annual reports were printed, and gratuitously 
and extensively distributed. Reports of the public 
meetings were, by the Society's direction, inserted 
in the newspapers of the day. The agents adopted 
carefully devised methods both of obtaining and of 
diffusing information. Temperance documents were 
appended, at the Society's expense, to the Farmer's 
Almanac. Conventions, called and managed by the 
agents of the Society, were held, from time to time, 
in convenient places ; and many plans of improve- 
ment were proposed and adopted, which never found 
their way into the records. 

The Massachusetts Temperance Society — having, 
through its influence, combined with that of other 
societies, and of various of the city governments 
and State Legislatures, seen the temperance princi- 
ples in active operation — thought it best not to 
interfere with the movement so successfully begun, 
but to leave to others the more active and public 
demonstrations ; while they themselves continued 
to work in a more quiet way, until circumstances 
should arise to call for their renovation. 

One of the movements which principally influ- 
enced the Council of the Massachusetts Temperance 
Society was that of the Washingtonians, begun in 
Baltimore, in the year 1840, by reformed drunkards. 
It spread itself widely throughout the country, and 
continues to operate to the present day. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



97 



Another very important movement was the en- 
forcement of the License Law, which, after being 
strenuously resisted on the ground of unconstitu- 
tionality, was finally carried to the United States 
Court at Washington, and pronounced to be con- 
stitutional. 

This decision was followed by one in Boston, 
adopted by the Mayor and Aldermen, which, by the 
casting vote of the Mayor, prohibited licenses for 
the retailing of spirituous liquors. 

The onward movement has been aided in the city 
of Boston by annual simultaneous meetings, by fre- 
quent and generally very full assemblies of citizens, 
and by occasional celebrations conducted by chil- 
dren and youth. 

While we are unable to make mention of the 
names of excellent individuals who have distin- 
guished themselves by their labors in the cause of 
temperance, there is one whom we cannot without 
injustice omit to designate. The prodigious efforts 
and sacrifices which have been made by Edward 
C. Delevast, Esq. of Albany, are well known to 
the present generation, and ought to be transmitted 
to remote posterity. 

We may conclude with saying, that, viewing the 
temperance reform as it displays itself in different 
nations, on different continents, and, in fact, through- 
out the civilized parts of the whole earth, we may 
perhaps consider it as the grandest moral reform 
that is known within the historic period. 
9 



98 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 



It has not been possible to prepare a complete 
list of the Society's publications ; but that which 
follows will give some idea of the amount of influ- 
ence exerted through the agency of the press. 



An edition, usually two thousand, and sometimes three 
thousand, of the Report read before the Society at its 
annual meetings. 

An edition, usually two thousand, of the Annual Pub- 
lic Address delivered before the Society. The Address 
of L. M. Sargent, Esq. passed through five editions. A 
second and even a third edition of these Addresses was 
not uncommon. 

1813. Two thousand copies of the Constitution. 

Two or three different Circulars, with Questions, the 

answers to which would be of use to the Society. 
1815. Cheap Tracts were prepared and published by a vote 

of the Society. 
1819. Two thousand copies of the Constitution. 

1826. A Letter to the Clergy 

1827. The Report, Resolutions, and Proceedings of the 

Julien Hall Meeting. Published also in the news- 
papers. 

IS 28. A Circular on the Advantages of Public Meetings. 

1829. A Letter of Judge Parker. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 99 

1831. A Circular on raising Means to support an Agent. 

Ten thousand copies of a Circular of the New York 
State Convention. 

Seven thousand copies of a Letter to the Mechanics 
of Boston, respecting the Formation of a City 
Temperance Society, from a Committee of the 
Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of In- 
temperance. 

1832. A Letter of Hon. Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the 

Navy. 

1833. The Agent's Report. 

Examination of the License Law of the State of Mas- 
sachusetts, by L. M. Sargent, Esq. 

Memorial to the General Court, circulated for Signa- 
tures in every County in the State. 

Circular for a Convention at Worcester. 

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Temperance Con- 
vention held at Worcester, September, 1833 ; with 
a Circular. 

Twenty thousand copies of " The Drunkard's Pro- 
gress," appended to the Farmer's Almanac. 

A donation of ten thousand copies of the " Ox Dis- 
course," in the Albany Temperance Recorder. 

The Agent's Circular to the Town and County So- 
cieties. 

1834. Thoughts on the Origin, Nature, Principles, and 

Prospects of the Temperance Reform, by Walter 
Channing, M.D. ; from the American Quarterly 
Observer. 
Five thousand copies of each of the following Tracts : 
1. Remarks upon the Comparative Profits of Grocers 
and Retailers, as derived from Temperate and In- 
temperate Customers ; by Horace Mann. 



100 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



2. Making Money by Selling Rum. 

3. Doings of the Conncil of the Massachusetts Tem- 
perance Society. 

4. Proceedings of the Suffolk County Temperance 
Society, at the simultaneous Celebration at Faneuil 
Hall, Feb. 25, 1834. 

5. Twelve thousand copies of " Plain Facts." 

One hundred thousand copies of " The Drunkard's 
Progress." 
1835. Proceedings of the Temperance Convention held in 
Boston, Sept. 23, 1835, in pursuance of an Invita- 
tion of the Massachusetts Temperance Society to 
the Friends of Temperance ; — with an Address 
to the Friends of Temperance. 

A Collection of Temperance Hymns. 

Tracts, entitled, " Cranberry Meadow." — " Deserted 
Village." — " Jotham Anderson." — " Bar-room." 
" Doings in a Spirit Shop." 

The Temperance Tales, gratuitously distributed ; viz. 
" My Mother's Gold King," — " Groggy Harbor," 
" The Stage Coach," &c. 
1837. Three thousand copies of Rev. William E. Chan- 
ning's Discourse. 

Report of a Committee of the General Court on the subject 

of the License Law. 
Hon. Peleg Sprague's Argument in support of the License 

Law of 1838. 
The Temperance Reform, or a Review of " Scenes in' Boston," 

from the Christian Examiner. 
Youths' Temperance Lecture. 
Many thousand copies, yearly, of the Temperance Journal, 

and other Temperance Publications, as Show and Hand 

Bills, Circulars, &c. 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPEltANCE SOCIETY. 



101 



PRESIDENTS. 



Hon. Samuel Dexter 
Hon. Nathan Dane 
Hon. Isaac Parker 
John C. Warren, M.D. 



1813—16 
1816—21 
1821—27 

1827 



VICE-PRESIDENTS. 



Gen. John Brooks 
John Warren, M.D. . 
Hon. Benjamin Pickman, jun. 
Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D.D. 
Hon. Artemas Ward, Judge . 
Hon. Samuel Haven, Judge 
Hon. William Prescott 
Hon. Thomas Dawes, Judge 
Rev. William Jenks, D.D. 
Rev. Abiel Abbot, D.D. . 
Amos Lawrence, Esq. 
Hon. Nathan Dane 
Hon. William Sullivan 
Hon. Horace Mann . 
Hon. Jonathan Phillips 
Samuel Dorr, Esq. 
Hon. Stephen Fairbanks 
9* 



1813—16 
1813—16 
1813—16 
1816—31 
1816—21 
1816—21 
1821—26 
1821—24 
1824—32 
1826—29 
1829—33 
1831—32 
1833—35 
1835—38 
1838—39 
1839—44 
1845 



102 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



A LIST * OF THE NAMES OF GENTLEMEN WHO 
SIGNED THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 



Samuel Dexter, LL.D. 
John Lathrop, D.D. 
John Warren, M.D. 
Isaac Rand, M.D. . 
William Brown 
Jeremiah Hill 
John Low 

Daniel Denison Rogers 
James Humphreys 
Ephraim Thayer 
John Abbot 
Benjamin Wads worth 
Samuel Worcester, D.D. 
David Dunlap 
Joseph Lee 
Richard Faxon 
Elisha Ticknor 
Kilborn Whitman 
Isaac Warren . 
Richard Sears 
James Crowell . 
John White 
Nathan Dane, LL.D. 
Moses Brown 
Benjamin Pickman, jun. 
Joshua Fisher, M.D. 
Robert Rantoul 



Boston 

Boston 

Boston 

Boston 

Boston 

Biddeford 

Lyman 

Boston 

Dorchester 

Boston 

Brunswick, Me. 

Dan vers 

Salem 

Brunswick, Me. 

Buckstown, Me. 

Boston 

Boston 

Pembroke 

Charlestown 

Chatham 

Yarmouth 

Concord 

Beverly 

Beverly 

Salem 

Beverly 

Beverly 



* A complete and full list it was impossible to obtain, 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



103 



Nathaniel Goodwin 


Beverly 


Abiel Abbot, D.D. 


Beverly 


Samuel T. Armstrong, Lieut.- Go verno 


r Boston 


Samuel Redington 


Yassalborough 


Joseph Torrey . 


Danvers 


Reuben D. Mussey, M.D. . 


Salem 


William Ropes 


Boston 


John Tappan 


Boston 


Jeremiah Evarts 


Charlestown 


Ebenezer Rockwood 


Boston 


William Thurston 


Boston 


Artemas Ward, Judge 


Boston 


Jonathan Breck 


Buckstown, Me. 


Henry Homes 


Boston 


Henry Wainwright 


Boston 


Henry Chapman 


Boston 


John Grew 


Boston 


Samuel Parkman 


Boston 


Caleb Strong, Governor 


Northampton 


William Phillips, Lieut.- Governor 


Boston 


Matthew Cobb 


Portland 


W. Prescott, LL.D. 


Boston 


Alden Bradford 


Boston 


J. Brooks, Governor 


Medford 


Rev. Joshua Huntington 


Boston 


Rev. Charles Lowell 


Boston 


Daniel P. Parker 


Boston 


Horace Holley, President . 


Boston 


Samuel Thatcher 


Boston 


Jabez P. Fisher 


Boothbay 


Hon. Ammi R. Mitchell 


North Yarmouth 


Jonathan Cogswell 


Saco 


John Pierce, D.D. 


Brookline 


Hon. Richard Sullivan 


Boston 


S. H. Walley . 


Boston 



104 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Joseph Emerson 


Beverly 


Jedediah Morse, D.D. . 


Charlestown 


Thomas Prentiss, D.D. 


Medfield 


James Gardner 


Lynn 


Daniel Huntington 


Bridgewater 


Dudley A. Tyng 


Boston 


Artemas Woodward 


Medfield 


Rev. Joshua Bates 


Dedham 


James W. Tucker 


Rowley 


Reuben Nason . 


Freeport 


Henry Grey 


Boston 


Jacob A. Cummin gs 


Boston 


Rev. Dr. Cutler 


Hamlinton 


Joseph Field 


Boston 


John Prince, D.D. 


Salem 


Rev. Aaron Green 


Maiden 


Rev. Thomas C. Thatcher . 


Lynn 


Rev. Rufus Anderson 


Wendham 


Rev. Samuel Dana 


Marblehead 


Rev. Moses Dow 


Beverly 


Rev. William Frothingham 


Lynn 


Rev. John Bartlett 


Marblehead 


E. Parish, D.D. 


Byfield 


Abiel Abbot, D.D. 


. Byfield 


Samuel Willard, D.D. 


Deerfield 


Rev. James Thurston . 


Manchester 


Rev. Joseph Chickering 


Woburn 


Rev. David T. Kimball 


Ipswich 


Rev. Ezra Goodwin 


Sandwich 


Rev. Phineas Fisk 


Wrentham 


Joseph Tuckerman, D.D. . 


Chelsea 


Jesse Applet on, D.D. 


Brunswick 


Rev. Avery Williams 


Lexington 


Rev. Reuben Emerson 


South Reading- 


Israel Thorndike 


Bo st on 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



105 



Francis Brown . 
Hew James Miltimore 
Ezra Witter 
Edward Payson, D.D. 
Pearson Thurston 
John Pipon 
Silas Warren 
Thomas Noyes 
J. T. Kirkland, President 
Rev. Jotham Sewell 
William E. Chamiing, D.D. 
Henry Lincoln 
George Russell 
Hon. John Davis 
Hon. Timothy Pickering- 
Isaac Parker, Chief Justice 
Hon. Leverett Saltonstall 
James Thwing 
Samuel Holton, Judge 
Eliphalet Porter, D.D. 
James Jackson, M.D. 
Edward Hart 
John Mason Williams . 
Samuel Beals 
Thomas Dennie 
Charles Jackson, Judge 
Dr. Wheaton 
Ezra Starkweather, M.D. 
Thomas L. Winthrop, Lieut. -Governor 
Phineas Upham 
James Thatcher, M.D. 
John Lathrop, jun. 
Rev. Adoniram Judson 
David Stanwood 
John Codman, D.D. 



North Yarmouth 

Newbury 

Wilbraham 

Portland 

Newburyport 

Taunton 

Jackson 

Needham 

Cambridge 

Chesterville 

Boston 

Falmouth, B.Co. 

Kingston 

Boston 

Wenham 

Boston 

Salem 

Boston 

Dan vers 

Roxbury 

Boston 

Boston 

New Bedford 

Boston 

Boston 

Boston 

Dedham 

Worthington 

Boston 

Boston 

Plymouth 

Boston 

Plymouth 

Boston 

Dorchester 



106 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Caleb Gannett . 
T. K. Jones 
John Parker 
Samuel Coverly 
Samuel Haven, Judge 
Francis Green 
David Sewall 
Hon. Samuel Hoar, jun, 
Rev. Samuel Deane 
Joshua Taylor 
Caleb Bradley . 
J. Nichols . 
Samuel P. Croswell 
Oliver Beale 
Joseph Baker 
Rufus Graves 
Nathaniel Smith 
Rev. Joel Wright . 
Rev. Ezra Ripley 
Rev. Warren Fay . 
Rev. Hezekiah Packard 
Baley Bartlett 
Abner How 
Calvin Briggs 
Samuel Page 
Asa Andrews 
William Coombs 
Isaac Osgood 
John Varnum . 
William Coffin 
John Hay 
Samuel Sewall 
Pliny Cutler . 
Benjamin Osgood . 
James White 



Cambridge 

Boston 

Boston 

Boston 

Dedham 

Boston 

York 

Concord 

Portland 

Portland 

Falmouth 

Portland 

Falmouth 

Pownal 

Livermore 

Sunderland 

Leverett 

Leverett 

Concord 

Brimfield 

Wiscasset 

Haverhill 

Beverly 

Marblehead 

Danvers 

Ipswich 

Newburyport 

Andover 

Haverhill 

Gloucester 

Reading 

Marblehead 

Boston 

Methuen 

Boston 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



1<>< 



William "SVhitwell 

John Osgood 

Stephen Badlam 

Ebenezer Porter, D.D. 

Samuel Nye 

Benjamin Tappan, D.D. 

Otis Thompson 

Rev. Enoch Pratt . 

Joseph Hilliard 

William Jenks, D.D. 

Henry Colman 

Ebenezer Jennings 

Samuel Gary 

Benjamin Wyman . 

Bill Russell 

Rev. Ralph Sanger 

Rev. Samuel Ripley 

Isaac Smith 

Henry Rice 

N. L. Erothingham, D.D. 

Rev. James Flint 

Rev. Isaac Allen 

William Cogswell 

Aaron Bancroft, D.D. 

Nathaniel Stone 

John White . . 

S.Bell . 

Joseph Haven 

Daniel Dana, D.D. 

Rev. Henry Ware, jun. D.D. 

Edward Richmond, D.D. 

Elisha Ciapp 

Ichabod Tucker 

Levi Hartshorn 

Thomas Dawes, Judge . 



Boston 

Newbury 

Dorchester 

Andover 

Salisbury 

Augusta, Me. 

Rehoboth 

Barnstable 

Berwick 

Bath, Me. 

Hingham 

D alt on 

Boston 

Woburn 

Woburn 

Dover 

Waltham 

Boston 

Boston 

Boston 

Salem 

Bolton 

Dedham 

Worcester 

Provincetown 

Dedham 

Boston 

Dennis 

Newburyport 

Boston 

Dorchester 

Boston 

Salem 

Gloucester 

Boston 



108 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Henry J. Oliver 


Boston 


Abiel Holmes, D.D. 


Cambridge 


Levi Hedge, LL.D. 


Cambridge 


Hon. Jonathan Phillips 


Boston 


Timothy Bigelow . 


Medford 


John G. Palfrey, D.D. 


Boston 


Rev. Philip Colby . 


Middleboro' 


Rev. James Sabine 


Boston 


Rev. Warren Pay . 


Chariest own 


Francis Parkman, D.D. 


Boston 


John Cushing 


Ashburnham 


Rev. Joseph Allen 


Northboro' 


Moses Grant 


Boston 


John Ware, M.D. 


Boston 


Rev. John Allyn 


Dnxbnry 


Rev. Gardner B. Perry 


Bradford 


Rev. Jeroboam Parker 


Sonthbridge 


Levi Bartlett 


Boston 


Rev. William Collier 


Boston 


Henry K. May 


Boston 


Lewis Tappan 


Boston 


Andrews Norton, Professor 


Cambridge 


Samnel J. May 


Brookline 


Charles Seaver . 


Boston 


Ezra S. Gannett, D.D. 


Boston 


John P. Spooner, M.D. 


Boston 


Benjamin Seaver 


Boston 


Isaac Danforth 


Boston 


Jabez Fisher 


Boston 


Stephen A. Dix 


Boston 


N. S. Simpkins 


Boston 


William B. Bradford 


Boston 


John Mellen 


Boston 


George A. Sampson 


Boston 


Otis Norcross 


Boston 



MASSACHUSETTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



KM) 



Thaddeus Nichols . 


Boston 


Abel Adams 


Boston 


George W, Crockett 


Boston 


Joseph Ballcster 


Boston 


P. Mackintosh, jun. 


Boston 


Gideon F. Thayer 


Boston 


Clement Durgin 


Boston 


Harrison Gray . . * 


Boston 


Rev. Samuel Barrett 


Boston 


Stephen Fairbanks 


Boston 


Z. B. Adams, M.D. 


Boston 


H. M. Hayes . 


Boston 


William J. Loring . 


Boston 


J. G. Stevenson, M.D. 


Boston 


Francis Jenks 


Boston 


J. F. Flagg, M.D. 


Boston 


Thomas Denny . 


Boston 


Charles White 


Boston 


S. E. Sewall 


Boston 


E. B. Hall 


Northampton 


D. A. White, Judge 


Salem 


R. Waldo Emerson 


Boston 


John Gray, jun. 


Boston 


Nathaniel Peabody 


Boston 


John Dorr . 


Boston 


William Lawrence 


Boston 


Charles Brown 


Boston 


George W. Lewis 


Boston 


Amos Lawrence 


Boston 


Rev. Hosea Hildreth 


Gloucester 


Nathaniel Brown 


Boston 


Charles Sprague 


Boston 


John C. Warren, M.D. 


Boston 


Rev. E. M. P. Wells . 


Boston 


Thomas G. Fessenden 


Charlestown 



10 



110 



DOCUMENTS OF THE 



Joseph Jenkins 


Boston 


Daniel Harwood 


Boston 


Henry Cocbnan 


Boston 


Nicholas Tower 


Cohasset 


Francis Hilliard 


Lowell 


Israel Martin 
Lncius M. Sargent 




Roxbury 


John H. Rogers 
Charles Tappan 




Boston 


William P. Peakes 


Scituate 


Rev. Peter Osgood 


Sterhng 


Alexander Dustin . 


Sterling 


Richard Hildreth 


Sterhng 


James P. Patten 


Sterhng 


Rev. Calvin Lincoln 


Fitchburg 


Thomas R. Boutelle, M.D. 


Fitchburg 


Payson Williams 

Rev. Washington Gilbert . 




Harvard 


E. A. Holman, M.D. . 


Harvard 


Reuben Wnitcomb, jun. 


Harvard 


Amos Parker, M.D. 


Bolton 


Samuel L. Crocker 


Taunton 


Andrew Bigelow, D.D. 


Boston 


Bartholomew Brown 


E. Bridgewater 


Xahum [Mitchell 


E. Bridgewater 


Aaron Herbert 


E. Bridgewater 


Rev. Bernard Whitman 


Waltham 


Rufus Hosmer 


Stow 


Seth Lee 


Barre 


Rev. W. B. 0. Peabody . 


Springfield 


Bezaleel Howard 


Springfield 


Samuel Latln-op, D.D. 


West Springfield 


Caleb Rice 


West Springfield 


Justin Ely 


West Springfield 


I Fowler 


Westfield 



MASSA< rEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 



Ill 



Emerson Davis, D.D. . 


Westfield 


Samuel Whitmarsh 


Northampton 


Rev. D. Huntington 


. Hadley 


Edward A. Newton 


Pittsheld 


Edward Ballard 


Pittsfield 


Parker D. Hall 


Pittsfield 


Henry P. Phillips 


South Adams 


Lemuel II. Parsons 


South Adams 


John L. Barker 


South Adams 


Snell Babbit 


South Adams 


"William C. Plunkett . 


South Adams 


"William Raymond Lee 


Boston 


John Ball 
Josiah Moore 




Duxbury 


Henry Edwards 


Boston 


S. A. Lawrence 


Boston 


Edward S. Hand 


Boston 


Ellsworth Chilcls . 
Samuel Blake, jun. 








H. Dupee, M.D. 







The names of one or two of the officers of the Society, not originally 
signed, have been inserted because tiny are known to ruwe been pri- 
mary members. 



112 



NAMES OF GENTLEMEN 

WHO HAVE DELIVERED 

THE ANNUAL ADDRESSES 

From the Time of the Formation of the Society. 
Those marked * have been published. 



1814. Rev. J. T. Kirkland, D.D. 

♦1815. Rev. Abiel Abbot, D.D. 

*1816. Rev. Jesse Appleton, D.D. 

*1817. Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D. 

1818. Rev. William E. Charming, D.D. 

1819. Hon. Samuel Haven. 

1820. Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D.D. 
-1821. Rev. William Jenks, D.D. 

1822. Hon. Edward Everett. 

*1823. Rev. Henry Ware, jun. D.D. 

1824. No address. 

*1825. John Ware, M.D. 

*1826. Gamaliel Bradford, M.D, 

*1827. Charles Sprague, Esq. 

*1828. Joshua B. Flint, M.D. 

1829. Rev. James Walker, D.D. 

►1830. Hon. J. T. Austin. 

1831. Hon. A. H. Everett. 

* 1832 . Hon. William Sullivan. 

-1833. Lucius M. Sargent, Esq. 

1834, Rev. Baron Stow. 

L835. Rev. S. K. Lothrop. 

-1836. Walter Channing, M.D. 

1837. Gov. George N. Briggs. 

1838. Rev. Thomas M. Clark. 

1839. Emory Washburn, Esq. 

1840. J. IT. Purkitt, Esq. 
Hon. Mr. Huntington. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS 

OF 

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 

BY JOHN FORBES, M.D. F.R.S. &e. 



Proceedings of the WorWs Temperance Convention, held in Loudon, August 
4, 1846, and following Days. With the Papers laid before the Conven- 
tion, Letters read. Statistics and General Information presented, 4'c. fyc. — 
London, 1846. Octavo, pp. 140. 

There are many reasons why we deem it incum- 
bent upon our brethren of the medical profession to 
take an active part in the investigation which is now 
being carried on by a large and not unimportant 
section of the public in this country and elsewhere, 
with regard to the effects of the habitual use of 
alcoholic drinks, and the possibility of effectually 
maintaining the mens sana in corpore sano without 
recourse to them. The fearful array of social and 
individual evils which may be traced to the abuse 
of fermented liquors should lead every reflecting 
mind to consider how far the use of them is desirable 
or necessary ; and this inquiry is peculiarly incum- 
bent upon those who assume to themselves the right 
of guiding the public in all that concerns the welfare 
10* 



114 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



of the bodily fabric, whether in health or disease. 
Their influence for good or evil in this matter can 
scarcely be too highly estimated. If they are able, 
after careful consideration of the evidence on each 
side, to give their sanction to the statements of 
the advocates of the total abstinence cause, that 
sanction ought not to be withheld ; since its weight 
in the scale of social order and morality demands 
the open and unqualified expression of it, unre- 
strained by any fear of ridicule or loss of the world's 
approval. That they would knowingly place their 
influence in the opposite scale, cannot for a moment 
Imitted ; but there is too much reason to fear, 
that, either from actual ignorance of what the ex- 
perience of multitudes of all ranks and conditions 
has now demonstrated, or from a natural tendency to 
persistence in that sort of laissez-faire system which 
it is so easy to practise and (in this matter espe- 
cially) so agreeable to their patients, the generality 
of medical men are at present lending their sanc- 
tion to a system of most pernicious error. Having 
long since made up our own minds on this subject, 
we have determined not to forego this opportunity 
— the last in our power — of recording our earnest 
convictions in regard to it; in the hope of leading 
our readers, if not at once to view the matter in the 
light in which we see it after many years of observa- 
tion and personal experience, at any rate to inquire 
and observe for themselves, and to pause before they 
again recommend or sanction practices which, though 



A.LCOHOLIC DBINKS. 



115 



comparatively innocent in themselves, aid in perpet- 
uating the direst evils with which our country is 
infected. 

There are, it must be admitted, few cases in which 
the wish so readily becomes the father to the thought, 
or in which the feelings are so apt to bias the judg- 
ment, as in the consideration of the real utility of 
fermented liquors. The prevalent ideas of social 
enjoyment and good fellowship are so intimately 
associated with the circulation of the bottle or the 
discussion of a bowl of punch, — most of us have 
such vivid recollections of the thirst and fatigue of 
travel alleviated by a glass of good ale at a road-side 
inn, — and many a medical man's notions of quiet 
and legitimate enjoyment, after a trying day of 
professional labor, are so closely connected with a 
comforting tumbler of toddy or brandy-and-water 
by his fireside, — that it is commonly thought im- 
possible to imagine that the animal spirits can be 
exuberant without the excitement derived from alco- 
hol, or that the wearied body and mind can derive 
their needed refreshment from beverages so poor as 
tea, coffee, or cocoa. When we are regulating the 
diet of a patient, moreover, how difficult it is to 
prescribe a rigid abstinence to those who earnestly 
petition for only a glass or two of wine, or a tumbler 
of beer, per day, as a necessary means of sustaining 
their fainting strength, or of imparting to them (and 
this is perhaps the most insidious plea of all) the 
power of digesting their proper food! And how 



116 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

pleasant it is to preserve the confidence of ovir patient 
by thus chiming-in with his humor, rather than by 
rashly propounding what he may regard as unrea- 
sonable crotchets to excite his doubts as to our 
own sanity ! The medical profession in this country, 
however, is beginning to be awakened from this 
pleasant insouciance by the pressure from without; 
and to find it necessary to place itself in the midst 
of the current of human progress, which might other- 
wise sweep past it, and leave its dicta among the 
despised relics of an immoveable conservatism. 
Some hundreds of medical men of all grades and 
degrees, in every part of the British empire, from the 
court physicians and leading metropolitan surgeons 
who are conversant with the wants of the upper 
ranks of society, to the humble country practitioner 
who is familiar with the requirements of the artisan 
in his workshop and the laborer in the field, have 
given their sanction (as we shall presently see) to 
the statement that the maintenance of health is 
perfectly compatible with entire abstinence from fer- 
mented liquors ; and that such abstinence, if gen- 
eral, would incalculably promote the improvement 
of the social condition of mankind. The medical 
adviser may now shelter himself, therefore, under 
nigh authority ; and need no longer be con- 
sidered a madman, or even an enthusiast, for denying 
it has been supposed that the common sense 
: mankind unmistakeably teaches. The difficulty, 
however, is to carry this doctrine into practice ; and 



&L00H0LI4 DB1 I 1 7 

nothing bul such a degree of moral couragi as can 

mperior to temporary ridicule can give sua 
But our profession is surely one of the last in which 
that moral courage should be found wanting; for 
the demands upon it are varied and continual. 
in this particular case, it may be remarked, the diffi- 
culty is constantly lessening, from the spread of 
more correct information on the subject ; and we 
have, in fact, known instances in which medical men 
lost credit with their patients, through Urging 
: them as necessary those stimulants which their 
own convictions told them that they were bettei 
without. 

We need not descant at any length upon the evils 
of intemperance. The experience of e edical 

practitioner must have brought its terrible results 
frequently before his eyes. But, whilst thus familiar 
with its consequences as regards individuals^ few 
but those who have expressly inquired info the sub- 
ject have any idea of the extent of the social evils 
resulting from it, or of the degree in which they 
upon every member of the i ity. On 

this account, we shall preface our inquiry with a 
few passages from a short paper in the pamphlel 
whose title we have placed at the head of the pres- 
ent article. This paper, entitled " Intemperance the 
Great Cause of Crime," consists almost entirely of 
extracts from recent public addresses of our ju« 
and from the written statements of magistrates, 
jailors, and police-superintendents, whose position 



118 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

furnished them with the means of gaining the fullest 
information on the subject. The whole of it is 
pregnant with the deepest and most fearful mean- 
ing ; and nothing but our limited space prevents us 
from placing it before our readers in its unabridged 
condition. We beg their earnest consideration of 
the following statements : — 

" Judge Wightman stated, in his address to the grand 
jury at Liverpool, in August, 1846, that 'he found, from a 
perusal of the depositions, that one unfailing cause of four 
fifths of these crimes was, as it was in every other calendar, 
the besetting sin of drunkenness.' 

" Judge Alderson, when addressing the grand jury in 
1844, at the York assizes, said : — ' Another thing he would 
advert to was, that a great proportion of the crimes to be 
brought forward for their consideration arose from the vice 
of drunkenness alone. Indeed, if they took away from the 
calendar all those cases with which drunkenness has any 
connection, they would make the large calendar a very 
small one.' 

" Judge Erskine declared at the Salisbury assizes in 1844, 
when sentencing a gentleman to six months' hard labor, 
for a crime committed through strong drink, that ninety- 
nine cases out of every hundred were from the same cause. 
Judge Coleridge likewise stated, at the Oxford assizes, that 
he never knew a case brought before him that was not 
directly or indirectly connected with intoxicating liquors. 
And Judge Patteson, at the Norwich assizes, said to the 
grand jury, — ' If it were not for this drinking, you and I 
would have nothing to do.' One of the judges stated, some 
time ago, at the circuit-court in Glasgow, that ' more than 
eighty criminals had been tried, and sentenced to punish- 
ment ; and that, with scarcely a single exception, the whole 
of the crimes had been committed under the influence of 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 119 

intoxicating liquors. From the evidence that appeared 
before him as a judge, it seemed that every evil in Glasgow 
began and ended in whiskey.' " (Proceedings, p. 123.) 

So that, according to the testimony of witnesses, 
whose competency and truthfulness no one can call in 
question, four fifths of the entire amount of crimes 
is the very least proportion we can assign to those 
which are committed under the direct or indirect 
influence of intoxicating liquors. Let us now call 
witnesses of another, but not less unimpeachable 
class, — the chaplains of jails. 

"Ina late Report of the prisons of Glasgow, an account 
is given of 3,907 individuals, most of whom were committed 
for crimes respecting which sentence of transportation might 
be awarded ; and respecting these the Rev. George Scott, 
chaplain, thus writes : — * Though a number of causes are 
specified, drunkenness is the most prolific source of most of 
the crimes in Glasgow. Of the many thousands annually 
imprisoned, I think it would not be possible to find one 
hundred sober criminals in any one year. Even the young- 
est learn this ruinous vice, and, when they live by stealing, 
swallow astonishing quantities of whiskey.' The accuracy 
of Mr. Scott's observations is corroborated by the new 
chaplain, in his Report of Glasgow Prisons for 1845. * To 
the ruinous habit of drunkenness,' says he, « may be traced, 
either directly or indirectly, the offences of at least three 
fourths of those that come to prison, females as well as 
males. Of this I am convinced, even from their own state- 
ments, as well as from other circumstances.' " (p. 125.) 

The chaplain of the Stirling prison states : — "So 
far as my experience has at present gone, I think 
that drunkenness is the main cause of crime : " and 



120 PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

the Rev. John Clay, the experienced and devoted 
chaplain of the North Lancashire jail at Preston, 
gives similar testimony. " Persons," he says, " who, 
in hard times, are led into criminality by destitution, 
are, in better times, led into it by drunkenness." To 
the same effect is the evidence of Mr. J. Smith, 
governor of the Edinburgh prison. The number 
of commitments for disorderly conduct arising out of 
drunkenness, during the year ending June, 1844, 
was 3,325 ; and of those for other offences, the 
number during the same period was 2,385. "I do 
not hesitate to say," adds Mr. Smith, "that it is 
my firm belief, that, but for drunkenness, and the 
evil and ruinous consequences which follow in its 
train, there would not have been one fifth part of 
the number of commitments during the period."' 
The following is Mr. Logan's general summary of 
similar information obtained from other quarters : — 

" We collected the following information in July, 1844, 

when visiting prisons in the west and south of Scotland ; 

and the reader wall bear in mind, that the majority had 

been committed for theft, and several were about to be 

ved to our penal colonies. At Greenock, the governor 

stated that, out of 461 prisoners, 297 might be said to have 

committed their crimes under the influence of drink. At 

Kilmarnock, Capt. Llane believed that he was under the 

mark, in stating that four fifths of the crime there was 

I by intoxicating liquors. In Dumfries, the governor 

warranted in stating, that nineteen out of every twenty 

Jit before him were so in consequence of drinking; 

and. when conversing with thirty prisoners out of the total 

number [forty-two), twenty-nine acknowledged that strong 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



121 



drink had been the cause of their imprisonment ; and the 
sitting magistrate stated to the clerk of the police-court, 
that very morning, that, were it not for intemperance, the 
premises might be shut up for ever. At Ayr, the governor 
1 had no hesitation in saying, that thirty-nine cases out of 
forty were the fruits of intemperance ; ' and added, ' If you 
think proper to visit the prisoners, you will find that my 
statement is pretty correct.' "Well, we visited each cell, 
and conversed with every unfortunate inmate ; and out of 
seventy -three prisoners there, no less than seventy acknowl- 
edged, that, had it not been for these accursed drinking 
customs, they never would have occupied the lonely cell of 
a prison. Similar statements were made to us when visit- 
ing the prisons of Paisley, Stirling, Hamilton, Dumbarton, 
Airdrie, and Kirkcudbright ; and what is true of Scotland 
is to a very great extent the same in England and Ireland. 
. . . These facts have all been fully corroborated by the 
testimony of the respective governors of Millbank Peniten- 
tiary and Newgate, London ; Wakefield House of Correc- 
tion ; Manchester New Bailey ; Newgate and the Female 
Prison, Dublin ; and, having visited these prisons, and con- 
versed with criminals in each of them (with the exception 
of Millbank, where it is not allowed), we found that their 
statements respecting the cause of crime were quite in 
keeping with those referred to in Scotland." (p. 126.) 

We need scarcely, we think, adduce any more 
evidence in proof of the position that intemperance 
is the chief cause of crime. How fearful, then, is 
the responsibility of those who, by any means, direct 
or indirect, encourage this baneful propensity ! 

To show the dreadful extent to which intemper- 
ance prevails, we shall quote from the preceding 
paper, and from an essay in the same publication, 
11 



122 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

on the Statistics of Temperance and Intemperance, 
by Mr. T. Beggs, some facts relative to the present 
condition of the city of Glasgow. On the authority 
of Sheriff Alison, it is stated, that, in the year 1840, 
there were in Glasgow, amongst about 30,000 in- 
habited houses, no fewer than 3,010, appropriated 
to the sale of intoxicating drinks ; every tenth house 
being devoted to the sale of spirits — a proportion 
unexampled, it is believed, in any other part of the 
globe. The same gentleman declares that he believes 
that 30,000 persons, or one tenth of the whole pop- 
ulation, go to bed drunk every Saturday night. It 
appears from an inspection of the registers of the 
police station, that not fewer than 25,000 commit- 
ments are annually made, on account of drunkenness 
and disorderly conduct in the streets ; and these 
commitments include no fewer than 10,000 females. 
A large proportion of the parties so committed are 
discharged early in the morning, and are not brought 
before the police magistrate ; not above a quarter of 
them being entered upon the records of his office. 
The annual consumption of ardent spirits in Glasgow 
is estimated by Sheriff Alison at six gallons per head ; 
making an aggregate of nearly 1,800,000 gallons 
yearly. The value of this at the retail price of 15s. 
per gallon, is £1,350,000. Now, what is the conse- 
quence of this as to the health and social condition 
of the city? "Glasgow," says Dr. Cowan, in his 
4 Vital Statistics of Glasgow,' " exhibits a frightful 
state of mortality, unequalled perhaps by any city 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 123 

f 

in Great Britain. The prevalence of fever presents 
obstacles to the promotion of social improvement 
among the lower classes, and is productive of an 
amount of human misery credible to those only who 
have witnessed it." The returns furnished by Dr. 
Davidson from the Glasgow Fever Hospital enable 
us to form some estimate of the influence of intem- 
perance in keeping up this fever, and in aggravating 
its rate of mortality. Of 249 males admitted during 
the year ending November 1, 1839, just one half 
are recorded as " temperate," that is, as never in- 
dulging in strong drink to the extent of inebriety ; 
whilst of the remainder, 51 are classed as " a little 
intemperate," that is, as now and then drinking to 
intoxication ; whilst 73 were " habitually intemper- 
ate," drinking ardent spirits whenever they could 
get them. Of 164 females, 76, or less than half, 
were " temperate," 8"a little intemperate," and 80 
" habitually intemperate." It is evident from these 
data, that the cases of fever amongst the intemper- 
ate part of the working classes must bear a much 
larger proportion to their number, than among the 
comparatively sober who constitute (it is to be hoped) 
the bulk of the community ; and that, upon the for- 
mer, therefore, the maintenance and propagation of 
the disease chiefly depends. The result is still more 
striking, when the rates of mortality are examined 
in these three classes respectively. Out of the 201 
temperate patients, only 28 died, or one in 7*2 ; 
w r hilst out of the 212 more or less intemperate, the 



124 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

number that died was 47, or one in 4*5. In Dr. 
Craigie's table of the deaths in 31 cases of fever that 
occurred in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, there 
were stated to be 15 irregular or dissipated, and 
only 2 regular; the habits of the remaining 14 are 
not stated, but they were probably of the " little in- 
temperate " class. This comparison is made, be it 
remembered, not between drinkers and abstainers, 
but between different classes of drinkers. The ex- 
pense in which the city of Glasgow is involved by 
the fever is estimated at £46,000 per annum ; a 
sum enormous in itself, but like a drop in a bucket, 
compared with that which is squandered in the pur- 
chase of ardent spirits. 

We shall not pursue this painful inquiry any fur- 
ther ; having said enough, we trust, to demonstrate 
the importance of the subject, to which we would 
now invite the serious and candid attention of our 
readers. 

A brief historical notice of the origin and progress 
of the Total Abstinence Movement may not be with- 
out its value, in showing how far experience has 
replied by anticipation to some of the objections 
which would occur to almost every one who has not 
given his express attention to the inquiry. It is 
well known that individuals have risen up from 
time to time, in all ages, to proclaim the virtues of 
aqua pura as the beverage most conducive to health 
of body and vigor of mind ; and our readers need 
scarcelv 6e reminded of the cases of Cornaro and 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 125 

Benjamin Franklin, were it not for the remarkable 
degree in which the strong practical sense of the 
latter anticipated the conclusions more recently 
drawn from scientific investigation. " On my en- 
trance into a London printing house," says Franklin, 
in his ' Autobiography,' " I worked at first as a 
pressman, conceiving that I had need of bodily ex- 
ercise, to which I had been accustomed in America, 
where the printers work alternately as compositors 
and at the press. I drank nothing but water. The 
other workmen, to the number of about fifty, were 
great drinkers of beer. I carried occasionally a large 
form of letters in each hand up and down stairs, 
while the rest employed both hands to carry one. 
They were surprised to see, by this and many other 
examples, that the ' American aquatic,' as they 
used to call me, was stronger than those who drank 
porter. My fellow-pressman drank every day a 
pint, with bread and cheese, for breakfast, one be- 
tween breakfast and dinner, one at dinner, one again 
about six o'clock in the afternoon, and another after 
he had finished his day's work. This custom ap- 
peared to me abominable ; but he had need, he said, 
of all this beer, in order to acquire strength for his 
work. I endeavored to convince linn, that the bodily 
strength furnished by the beer could only be in 
proportion to the solid part of the barley dissolved 
in the water, of which the beer was composed ; 
that there was a larger quantity of flour in a penny 
loaf; and that consequently, if he ate this loaf, and 
11* 



126 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



drank a pint of water with it, he would derive more 
strength from it than from a pint of beer." The 
pious and enthusiastic Wesley, and the ingenious 
and benevolent Dr. Beddoes, devoted no small 
amount of labor and reasoning to an attempt to 
awaken the public mind to the injurious effects of 
the prevalent use, moderate and immoderate, of fer- 
mented liquors ; and the latter, amongst other tracts 
on the subject, published an excellent one, in 1808, 
entitled ' Good Advice for the Husbandman in Har- 
vest,' from which we shall presently make an extract. 
Besides these well-known examples, there have 
always been many who have practised, in a quiet, 
unostentatious manner, an habitual abstinence from 
all fermented liquors ; and amongst these might be 
named some who have been remarkable for the 
amount of mental and bodily exertion which they 
have been able to sustain. Still it has been the 
current opinion, sanctioned by the general voice and 
the usual practice of the medical profession, that the 
moderate employment of fermented liquors, of good 
quality, is beneficial, or at any rate innocuous, in a 
great majority of instances ; and that, where the 
demands upon the bodily strength are peculiarly 
constant and severe, efficient aid in meeting them is 
derived from their use. The cases in which the 
contrary result has been apparent have been set 
down as idiosyncrasies, which can afford no rule for 
general guidance ; and those who have ventured to 
oppose the public dictum on this subject have been 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 

usually considered at the best as amiable enthusi- 
asts, whose principles, though true as regarded 
themselves, are not at all adapted for popular prac- 
tice. But, without the guidance of science, and 
against rather than with the authority of doctors. 
the people have begun to find out for themselves 
that those well-meaning, but impracticable enthusi- 
asts really spoke the truth ; and that what has been 
commonly regarded as universal experience on this 
matter is nothing better than " a mockery, a delu- 
sion, and a snare," having no better foundation than 
the notion which prevailed until the beginning of 
the last century, that foul air was beneficial to the 
sick. 

The following is a brief sketch of the origin and 
progress of the great temperance movement. 

Association for the purpose of promoting temper- 
ance was first conceived and put into execution in 
the United States of North America, where the in- 
habitants are far advanced in the knowledge that 
''union is power," and in the practical skill neces- 
sary for applying coalition to a variety of purposes 
both political and philanthropical. Combinations 
against drunkenness have existed in America from 
a very early period. At first, they merely insisted 
on general moderation in the use of strong drinks. 
Afterwards their rules and regulations became more 
stringent ; and abstinence from ardent spirits, at 
least, formed part of the confederate agreement and 
pledge. About 1815 or 1820, regular societies 



128 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



were formed on this basis in America, and began to 
extend themselves widely. The method of absti- 
nence from every thing intoxicative was, at a later 
period, introduced there from Great Britain. 

Early in the year 1828, Mr. John Dunlop (a 
name worthy to be placed by that of Father Mathew, 
among the benefactors of mankind) began to agitate 
the subject in Scotland, and took various plans of 
doing so ; such as collecting statistics and proofs 
of national intemperance ; demonstrating the good 
effects which had followed association against ine- 
briation in America ; exposing the evils of the system 
of compulsory drinking, an usage peculiar to this 
country ; also by travelling about and conversing with 
influential individuals and philanthropists through- 
out the country ; writing in newspapers, composing 
and disseminating tracts, lecturing publicly in large 
towns, &c. Notwithstanding Mr. Dunlop' s enthu- 
siastic and energetic proceedings, he did not succeed 
in gaining any regular disciples to the cause till 
about the latter end of 1829, and beginning of 1830 ; 
at which period the Greenock, Glasgow, Edinburgh, 
Dundee, Paisley, and other societies were instituted 
in Scotland ; the Bradford Society in Yorkshire, by 
Mr. Forbes ; and the Old British and Foreign Tem- 
perance Society in London, by Mr. Collins of Glas- 
gow. Mr. Dunlop had proposed that all wines should 
be abandoned as well as spirits, but only partially 
succeeded in that point. 

In the summer of 1829, Dr. Edgar of Belfast, 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



129 



without knowledge of Mr. Dunlop's proceedings, 
set on foot the Irish temperance movement, assisted 
by Mr. George Can ; and it is believed, that the 
first European temperance society was established 
by the latter at New Ross, about June or July, 
1829 ; Mr. Dunlop's first societies not having been 
established till October of that year. Thus the 
Irish and British movements were separate and in- 
dependent in their commencements. 

Things continued on the original footing for some 
years, with only in general a pledge against the use 
of ardent spirits. But it soon became evident to 
reflecting persons engaged in the cause, that half 
measures would not suit the urgency of the case, 
and that a prodigious and nearly universal national 
evil must be met with correspondent strength of 
remedy. It was remarked, too, that all drunkards 
who were really reformed by joining the societies, 
not merely conformed to the actual rules, but uni- 
formly abstained from using any thing intoxicative. 
Many individuals connected with the societies ac- 
cordingly made it their practice to abstain totally ; 
and in 1832 it is believed that the Paisley insti- 
tution made total abstinence a part of their regu- 
lations. 

Teetotalism, or total abstinence from all intoxi- 
cating drinks, was not, however, fairly established 
generally till 1834; when the seven men of Preston, 
assisted by Mr. Pollard of Manchester, and others, 
started societies fairly and exclusively on the tee- 



L30 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



total principle. The published lectures of Mr. 
Livesey, of Preston, constitute an era on this sub- 
ject; and the labors and lectures of a gentleman 
in the iron trade at Liverpool (whose name we 
forget at the moment) were extremely useful at this 
period. 

Shortly after this, the New British and Foreign 
Temperance Society was established at London on 
teetotal principles, under the management of Messrs. 
Janson, Oxley, Meredith, Green, and others ; and 
very soon, almost all the original temperance socie- 
ties in Great Britain adopted the rule of total 
abstinence. The doctrine was pushed over into 
Ireland by the Liverpool gentleman we have men- 
tioned, to be brought into the most brilliant success 
in due time afterwards by Father Mathew. 

About 1836 the teetotal element was established 
in the American temperance societies, which, it is 
believed, are now universally conducted on this 
principle. 

The total abstinence reform has extended itself 
successfully into Canada, New Brunswick, India, 
the West Indies, and our other colonies. It has 
also made its way into the South Sea Islands, and 
elsewhere among the half-cultivated races ; and has 
been partially adopted in Sweden, and other parts 
of the North of Europe. 

The following are the terms of the certificate to 
which we have referred, as having received such 
numerous signatures of medical practitioners, in- 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



131 



eluding those of many of our most distinguished 
physicians and surgeons : — 

" We, the undersigned, are of opinion, — 

M 1. That a very large proportion of human misery, in- 
cluding poverty, disease, and crime, is induced by the use 
of alcoholic or fermented liquors as beverages. 

" 2. That the most perfect health is compatible with total 
abstinence from all such intoxicating beverages, whether in 
the form of ardent spirits, or as wine, beer, ale, porter, 
cider, &c. &e. 

" 3. That persons accustomed to such drinks may, with 
perfect safety, discontinue them entirely, either at once, or 
gradually after a short time. 

" 4. That total and universal abstinence from alcoholic 
liquors and intoxicating beverages of all sorts would greatly 
contribute to the health, the prosperity, the morality, and 
the happiness of the human race." 

Let us say, however, in limine, that, whilst taking 
upon ourselves the earnest advocacy of these doc- 
trines, we by no means wish to identify ourselves 
with all that has been written and uttered by the 
disciples of the total abstinence system. Too often 
their intemperance has passed from their cups to 
their language ; the finger of pharisaical scorn has 
been pointed at the " moderate drinkers," whose 
consciences have not yet told them that there is any 
harm in the temperate use of fermented liquors ; 
and even those who agree w T ith them in their lead- 
ing principles, and who join with them in their 
practice, but who hesitate at sanctioning all that 
ignorant enthusiasts think fit to assert, have been 
stigmatized as enemies, rather than as friends, to 



132 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS 01- 



the great cause of emancipation. Now, we most 
fully recognize the importance of earnest and awa- 
kening appeals to those who are sunk in the lethar- 
gic slavery of one of the most brutalizing of all 
sensual indulgences ; but we are certain that exag- 
geration never ultimately serves the interests of 
truth. No words can depict too strongly the evils 
of intemperance. No appeals can be too urgent or 
awakening to the blunted feelings of those who are 
ruining themselves, both for time and eternity, by 
an habitual indulgence in this overpowering pro- 
pensity ; but surely there is plenty of matter for the 
advocates of abstinence, without going out of their 
way to condemn those who maintain that fermented 
liquors are the gifts of God, to be used in modera- 
tion, but not abused. We are quite sure that the 
manner in which their public proceedings have been 
conducted has kept many aloof, who would have 
been most valuable and influential advocates of this 
grout cause of social and individual reformation. 
The fact we believe to be, that a large proportion 
of the intemperate denunciations and rash state- 
ments to which we allude have been put forth by 
men who have themselves felt all the tyranny of 
this dreadful slavery ; and (as we have been informed 
by some most competent observers) they feel, on 
their emancipation from it, a sort of excitement that 
is almost uncontrollable, urging them to bear public- 
testimony to the evils from which they have escaped, 
and infusing into that testimony a strength that 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



133 



makes it operate powerfully on the minds of those 
whom they desire to awaken, whilst it leads them 
(with the want of discrimination natural to men of 
imperfect education) to express the most unmiti- 
gated reprobation of those more especially who 
profess themselves friends of temperance, but who 
do not feel called upon to preach or to practise 
total abstinence. 

Now, we are quite content to brave their condem- 
nation for the sake of what we consider to be truth ; 
and feeling satisfied, as we just now said, that the 
interests of truth cannot be served by exaggeration, 
we think it right fearlessly to state, that we cannot, 
with them, affirm that we consider alcohol in all its 
forms to be nothing else than a poison. We cannot 
conscientiously go the length of denying, that under 
any circumstances, whether of health or disease, the 
administration of alcohol can be justified. We 
believe that, if the whole world could be really tem- 
perate in the use of fermented liquors, there would 
be no need of total abstinence societies. But we 
advocate their principles, because sad experience 
has shown, that a large proportion of mankind can- 
not be temperate in the use of fermented liquors, 
and that nothing short of total abstinence can pre- 
vent the continuance, in the rising generation, of 
the terrible evils which we have at present to de- 
plore ; — because experience has further shown, 
that the reformation of those who are already habit- 
ually intemperate cannot be accomplished by any 
12 



134 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL E1TECTS OP 



i- short of entire abstinence from fermented 
liquors ; — and because experience has also proved, 
that this reformation cannot be carried to its required 
extent, without the moral influence of the educated 
(lassie. Such influence can only be afforded by 
example. There is no case in which its superiority 
over mere precept is more decided and obvious than 
in this. " I practise total abstinence my sell',"" is 
worth a thousand exhortations ; and the miserable 
failure of all the advocates who cannot employ this 
argument should lead all those whose position calls 
upon them to exert their influence (and who are 
there who do not possess some means of thus doing 
u-oodr) to a serious consideration of the claims which 
their duty to society should set up in ojDposition 
to their individual feelings of taste or comfort. 

Without setting ourselves up as apologists for 
the managers of total abstinence societies, we may 
remark that this, like other great movements, has 
been mainly brought about by the agency of indi- 
viduals, whose very enthusiasm necessarily renders 
them somewhat one-sided in their views. It is for 
ool-judging philosopher to place these views 
m their true light, and thus to guide mankind in 
forming a just appreciation of them; but such a 
movement might be retarded for centuries, or might 
never take place at all, if there were no one-sided 
enthusiasts in the word, and it were left to the phi- 
losophers to set it going. Now, the leaders of the 
total abstinence movement have conscientiouslv felt 



■;lolic DRINKS. 



that a charge has been laid, as it were, upon their 
shoulders, to rid the country of intemperance ; and 
they can fairly plead the enormity of the disease, 
and the difficulty of completely eradicating it, as ari 
apology for the severity of their cure. There are so 
many apertures, they affirm (and with justice , by 
which men contrive to escape from the abstinence- 
principle, — creeping out like cunning foxes in 
search of the object of their craving, — that every 
hole must be stopped up, every apology for a re- 
course to alcoholic liquors cut off. We admit the 
danger and the necessity for the utmost caution in 
the avoidance of it. But still we do not think that 
those of the professed advocates of total abstinence, 
who deny the possibility of any benefit from the use 
of alcohol, have taken up a defensible ground ; and 
the argument for the stringency of the pledge should 
rather be based, in our estimation, upon the risk of 
abuse, which the slightest violation of it has been 
found by experience to involve, than upon those 
asserted " poisonous " properties, which it assuredly 
does not possess in a degree nearly so strong as 
many of our most valued medicines. Dissenting, 
as we thus do, from much that has been uttered 
from the teetotal press and platform, during the last 
ten or twelve years, we yet must in justice admit, 
that, when so large a number of parties are con- 
cerned, and these chiefly of very limited education, 
as in the present case, it is somewhat unreasonable 
to expect perfect wisdom in every mouth, or that 



136 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



in so good a cause should not sometimes get 
the better of discretion. And the leaders of the 
movement may fearlessly ask, what association of 
such a size — political, ecclesiastical, or philan- 
thropic — could bear to be tried by a severe test 
on this point? 

In the exercise of our own duty as cool-judging 
critics, we now propose to inquire, in the first place, 
into the present state of our knowledge as to the 
physiological action of alcohol on the human body ; 
next, to consider how far the results of the compar- 
ative experience of those who make habitual but 
moderate use of fermented liquors, and of those 
who entirely abstain from them, under a variety of 
circumstances, warrants the assertion, that total ab- 
stinence is invariably (or nearly so) compatible with 
perfect health, or is even more favorable to health 
than habitual but moderate indulgence ; and finally, 
to endeavor to deduce from these data such conclu- 
sions with regard to the therapeutic use of alcohol, 
as may cause its employment by medical men to be 
attended with the greatest possible amount of good, 
and the least admixture of evil. 

Our knowledge of the physiological action of al- 
cohol, though far from being sufficiently complete to 
afford a specific determination of its hygienic or 
therapeutic value, is yet quite sufficient to guide us 
in the inquiry: and we shall accordingly state briefly 
the points which may be regarded as, in our appre- 
hension, most satisfactorily made out. We believe 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



137 



that no physiologist of repute would now be found 
to maintain any other doctrine in regard to the ma- 
terials of the albuminous tissues of the animal body, 
than that propounded a few years since by Mulder 
and Liebig ; namely, that they are derived exclu- 
sively from those alimentary substances whose 
constitution is similar to their own ; so that the 
non-azotized compounds cannot enter into the com- 
position of more than a very small part of the animal 
fabric. This doctrine, when first put forth, was 
received with a degree of hesitation and distrust 
proportioned to its novel and startling character ; 
but the testimony in its favor has been gradually 
though quietly accumulating, so that it now com- 
mands very general if not universal assent. By the 
term "albuminous," we mean to designate all those 
tissues which can be formed at the expense of albu- 
minous matter ; and this category includes the 
gelatinous and horny tissues, as well as those which 
possess a composition more nearly allied to that of 
albumen ; for we know that the former, as well as 
the latter, must be generated from albumen during 
the incubation of the egg, as well as during after- 
life, when neither gelatine nor horny matter exists 
in the food. The only tissues in the animal body 
of which albumen does not form the principal basis, 
are the adipose and the nervous. In both these it 
is probable that the membranous walls of the cells 
and tubes have (like similar membrane elsewhere) 
an albuminous composition ; the contents of these 
12* 



138 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OP 



cells and tubes being of a non-azotized character in 
the latter case, as in the former. For it has been 
pointed out by Valentin (Lehrbuch der Physiologic 
Band I. S. 174), that, although the substance of the 
brain and nerves appears to yield an azotized fatty 
acid when analysed en masse, the supposed compo- 
sition of this acid (which is quite an exception to 
all chemical probability) may be accounted for by 
regarding it as a mixture of albuminous matter and 
ordinary fat, which is exactly what might be antici- 
pated on anatomical grounds. 

All our present physiological knowledge, then, 
leads to the decided conclusion, that alcohol cannot 
become the pabulum for the renovation of the mus- 
cular substance, which process can only be effected 
by the assimilation of albuminous materials in the 
food ; and that the habitual use of alcohol, therefore, 
cannot add any thing to the muscular vigor. And 
this conclusion receives most striking confirmation 
from the well-known fact, that, in the preparation 
of the body for feats of strength, the most expe- 
rienced trainers either forbid the use of fermented 
liquors altogether, or allow but a very small quan- 
tity to be taken ; their trust being placed in a 
highly nutritious diet, active muscular exertion, and 
the occasional use of purgatives which purify the 
blood of the products of decomposition, or draw off 
superfluous alimentary materials. 

That alcohol has some peculiar relation to nervous 
i . would appear from its power of stimulating 



'UOLIC DRIXKB. 

the nervous system to increased action ; but this 
power, although coincident with a certain relation 
in their chemical composition, could not be predi- 
cated from the latter, since ordinary fat, which has 
no such stimulant effect, has a closer chemical 
relation to nervous substance than is possessed by 
alcohol. Whether alcohol is capable, by any trans- 
formation, of being converted into nervous matter, 
is a question which we have at present no data to 
determine ; but there can be no doubt that this 
tissue may be formed equally well from other ingre- 
dients of food, which have not like it a stimulant 
effect. It cannot, therefore, be a necessary pabulum 
to the nervous system ; and its peculiar virtues, as 
an habitual article of diet, if such there be, must 
be looked for in its stimulating qualities. 

But, it may be maintained, although alcohol is 
not requisite or useful as a pabulum for the tissues, 
it is most efficient as a combustible material, serv- 
ing to keep up the heat of the body in extreme cold, 
and to defend it against the effects of vicissitudes of 
temperature, — in common language, " to keep the 
cold out." Now, this at first sight appears a very 
cogent argument for its use under certain circum- 
stances, if not for its regular employment ; but, 
when its effects are more closely examined, it will 
be found that neither physiological science, nor 
the results of experience, sanction such a proceed- 
ing. The maintenance of the animal heat chiefly 
depends, as all our readers must be aware, upon 



140 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OP 



the formation of carbonic acid and water by the 
oxygenation of hydro-carbon contained (probably 
in various forms) in the blood. Now, the ingestion 
of alcohol, so far from promoting, checks the oxy- 
genating process ; as was shown long since by the 
result of the experiments of Dr. Prout, who invaria- 
bly found the quantity of exhaled carbonic acid to 
exhibit a marked decrease after the ingestion of 
alcoholic drinks, other circumstances remaining the 
same. Subsequent experimenters upon the respir- 
atory process have met with the same results ; and 
they are confirmed by the fact ascertained by Bou- 
chardat, that, when alcohol is introduced into the 
system in excess, the blood in the arteries presents 
the aspect of venous blood, showing that it has not 
undergone the proper oxygenating process. Now, 
although we may not understand the reason of this 
(although it seems to be referable to the well-known 
power of alcohol to prevent or retard chemical 
changes in organic substances), the fact is of the 
utmost importance. 

The inference to which we are thus conducted by 
physiological reasoning, instead of being negatived 
by general experience (as it is commonly supposed 
to be), is fully confirmed by it. The Esquimaux. 
Greenlanders, and other inhabitants of the coldest 
regions of the globe, effectually maintain their ani- 
mal heat by the large consumption of fatty matter ; 
and whatever may be the temporary effect of an 
alcoholic draught, we believe that all arctic and 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 

antarctic voyagers agree, that continued resistance to 
cold is most effectually maintained without alcohol, 
or at any rate with a much smaller quantity of it 
than is commonly thought necessary. A very strik- 
ing proof of this is afforded by the arrangements 
recently made for the overland arctic expedition, on 
which the best authorities have of course been con- 
sulted by Government. In the programme of these 
arrangements, it is expressly stated, that no fer- 
mented liquors are to be used by the parties who 
proceed upon it. We have heard many of the now 
almost extinct race of stage-coachmen, who had 
been induced to give up their former habit of 
imbibing a glass of ale or of brandy-and-water at 
every stage, and to substitute an occasional cup of 
hot coffee and a rasher of toasted bacon, speak most 
decidedly in favor of the superior efficacy of the 
latter system ; and we doubt if any man who had 
the resolution to adopt it, ever returned to his 
habits, except from the love of liquor. We are 
strongly inclined to the belief, that much of the 
reputed warming effect of alcohol is due to the hot 
liquid with which it is usually combined when used 
for that purpose. A tumbler of hot brandy-and- 
water, of whiskey-toddy, or negus, is doubtless a 
very comfortable beverage when imbibed on a cold 
night on the top of a coach ; but our own experience, 
and that of many others who have tried the experi- 
ment, warrants the belief that a cup of hot tea, 
coffee, or cocoa, will have quite as much warming 



1 1- THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

influence, whilst a cold alcoholic drink will be 
nearly, if not quite, ineffectual. The only cases 
in which we conceive that alcohol in any form can 
be more useful than other compounds of hydro- 
carbon as a heat-producing substance, are those in 
which all the combustible material of the body has 
been used up during the progress of a fever or other 
exhausting disease, and in which the state of the 
digestive system prevents the reception of any other 
kind of pabulum into the circulating current. To 
these we shall hereafter more particularly refer. 

Before leaving the question of the heat-producing 
powers of alcohol, we should advert to an explana- 
tion which has been offered, of the diminution in 
the amount of carbonic acid exhaled after its use ; 
since this explanation, if correct, might vitiate the 
theoretical part of our argument, though it could 
not affect the results of experience. It has been 
stated by no less an authority than Liebig, that this 
diminution of carbonic acid is owing to the com- 
paratively small proportion of carbon in alcohol ; 
the heating power of that substance being chiefly 
due to the hydrogen it contains, which is exhaled 
from the lungs in the form of the vapor of water, 
so that, whilst the alcohol is being carried off from 
the blood, the proportion of carbonic acid to watery 
vapor, in the products of the combustive process, 
will be unduly low. This may possibly be true ; 
but it is not the whole truth. There are other sub- 
stances, as Dr. Prout has shown, whose ingestion is 



ALCOHOLIC PKINKS. 

followed by similar results, to which no such expla- 
nation is applicable : of this nature is strong tea, 
especially green tea. And, moreover, the experience 
of Dr. Prout would lead to the decided conclusion, 
that the presence of alcohol in the blood prevent* 
the extrication of matters whose retention is inju- 
rious to it, and for whose removal the respiratory 
process is the appropriate means. For, whilst the 
diminution in the amount of carbonic acid exhaled 
continues as long as the effects of the alcohol are 
perceptible to the individual who has swallowed it, 
these effects no sooner pass off (which they did in 
Dr. Prout* s individual case, with frequent yawnings 
and a sensation as if he had just awoke from sleep), 
than the amount of carbonic acid exhaled rises much 
above the natural standard ; thus giving, it would 
seem, unequivocal evidence of the previous abnor- 
mal retention of carbon in the system, of which it is 
only able to free itself after the alcohol has been 
burned off. And this view is further confirmed by 
the fact which experience has forced upon men who 
are so far most unwilling adherents to the abstinent 
system, — that alcoholic liquors ingested during the 
performance of severe labor, in very hot situations, 
cause a very rapid and decided failure of the strength ; 
so that men who drink largely of such liquors in the 
intervals of their work, are obliged to abstain from 
them whilst their labor is in progress. The physio- 
logist well knows, that the quantity of hydro-carbon 
carried off by the lunsrs diminishes as the external 



144 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

temperature rises ; and one of the reasons for the 
oppressive influence of a continued exposure to great 
heat is probably to be found in the obstruction which 
it presents to the extrication of that amount of car- 
bonic acid whose removal is necessary for the depu- 
ration of the blood. Now, if alcoholic liquors be 
ingested in this state of the system, and interpose 
(as we have endeavored to show that they do) a 
still further obstacle to this process, the result would 
be precisely what experience demonstrates, — name- 
ly, the flagging of the powers of the system, from 
the imperfect purification of the blood. — Thus, 
put the subject in what light we may, theory and 
practice here go hand in hand in guiding us to the 
conclusion, that alcohol is not more efficacious than 
other pabula for the combustive process, except in 
certain disordered states of the system, to which we 
shall hereafter refer ; and that its habitual use can- 
not be defended on the ground of the necessity for 
supporting the heat of the body by its means during 
exposure to very severe cold, whilst it is positively 
injurious when the surrounding temperature is high. 
We shall presently adduce other evidence upon this 
latter point, from the experience of those who have 
resided in tropical climates. 

it .ippears, then, that the physiological influence 
of alcohol upon the system, under all ordinary cir- 
:umstances, cannot be attributed to any thing else 
than its stimulant character ; and it is almost a 
self-evident corollary from this proposition, that its 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



145 



habitual use, even in moderate quantities, can exert 
no beneficial effects. For the healthy fabric should 
be quite capable of maintaining itself in vigor upon 
a proper diet, and with a due quantum of sleep, 
exercise, &c. without any adventitious assistance ; 
and, if it be not, assistance should be sought from 
alterations in diet or regimen, or from remedies 
which tend to promote the regular play of its func- 
tions, rather than from stimulants, which may pro- 
duce in some of these a temporary excitement, but 
which thus tend to destroy the balance of the whole. 
The very nature of a stimulant is to produce a sub- 
sequent depression, and to lose its force by frequent 
repetition. The depression is proportional to the 
temporary excitement ; and the loss is thus at least 
equivalent to the gain. And when a stimulus loses 
its effect as such by frequent repetition, it is still 
felt as being necessa^ to bring the system up to 
par ; an increased dose being required to elevate it 
higher. Thus, as is well known, those who habit- 
ually employ fermented liquors for the sake of their 
stimulating effects are led on from small beginnings 
to most fearful endings ; and the habit, growing by 
what it feeds on, becomes a necessity. No pretext 
is more commonly given out as an apology for the 
habitual use of fermented liquors, than the aid which 
a moderate employment of them is thought to afford 
to the digestive process. But we maintain, that, 
where a man duly observes the laws of health, the 
appetite will always desire the amount of food which 
13 



i 16 



THE FilA'SIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



the system needs, and the stomach will be able to 
digest it. If health is to be measured by the capa- 
city for eating, then the habitual moderate use of 
fermented liquors may be conducive to it ; but, if 
the increase in this capacity which they produce be 
of no service to the economy at large, they cannot 
have any other than an injurious effect, by leading 
us to overtask the powers of our digestive appara- 
tus. Thus, as Liebig has very well, pointed out, 
the residents in warm climates who take stimulants 
before their meals, in order to make up for the 
deficiency of appetite, act upon a most unphysiolo- 
g'ical and ultimately injurious system ; forgetting 
or being ignorant that the real demand for food 
is much less when the surrounding temperature is 
high, and that the diminished appetite really indi- 
cates the diminished wants of the system. In a 
large proportion of the cases in which the habitual 
employment of fermented liquors has really a show 
of utility, we are quite certain that a copious use of 
cold water externally, and the substitution of it for 
more stimulating beverages, will be found in the 
end to be the most wholesome practice, tending (as 
experience has shown that it does) both to 
improve the appetite, and to invigorate the diges- 
powers. 
We do not go so far as to maintain, that no 
; lions arc to be made to this rule : but we are 
^utisried that these exceptions arc much fewer than 
is commonly supposed ; and that they are to be 



ALCOHOLIC DRII 



147 



Le rather in cases where some temp, 
turbing cause is acting upon the system, than in 
those in which there seems to be an habitual want 
of assistance. 

In like manner, we believe that the nervous 
tern can derive no benefit from the habitual ui 
fermented liquors: since, in a healthy state of body. 
it ought to be equal to the work it is called upon to 
perform : and, if overtasked, it must be renovated 
by repose. Doubtless, it may be stimulated to in- 
creased temporary activity by the use of alcohol : 
but this activity can never be long sustained ; and. 
in the state of subsequent depression, the body is 
more than usually liable to the influence of mor- 
bific causes. There is no part of our frame which 
requires nicer management, or which is more rap- 
idly acted upon by influences from without or from 
within, than the nervous system. The regular 
employment of it, if well directed, and carefully 
supported by attention to every thing that promotes 
the general health, may be carried to a marvellous 
extent : and yet, in some peculiarly susceptible 
constitutions, the least indisposition gives rise to a 
feeling of nervous depression, which might seem to 
demand the use of stimulants for its removal. In 
the majority of cases, however, this feeling of de- 
pression is the result of habitual inattention to the 
laws of health : and, although it may be tempora- 
rily removed by alcohol, yet the evil is only palliated 
for a time ; and the very means employed, lays the 



148 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

foundation for a future increase of the feeling of 
depression, requiring an increase of the stimulus for 
its removal. We may appeal to universal experi- 
ence in support of our doubts, whether those who 
have had frequent recourse to alcoholic stimulants 
for the removal of nervous depression, arising from 
previous exhaustion by over- work, or from disorder 
of some other function of the body, have been able to 
stop at any one point ; or whether they have not, 
to produce the same effect upon their feelings, been 
obliged to increase the dose, the more frequently it 
has been repeated. This we conceive to be the 
great and palpable distinction between the effects 
of a stimulant which excites, and a pabulum which 
supports, the system. The former needs to be in- 
creased in proportion to the frequency with which 
it is employed. The demand for the latter varies 
merely in accordance with the amount of renovation 
to be effected. 

But it is often asserted, that, although stimulants 
may be dispensed with in temperate climates, the 
habitual use of them is necessary to aid the system 
in resisting the enervating influence of extreme 
heat. Let us see how far the results of experience, 
when carefully sifted, bear out this doctrine. In 
the first place, we presume, it will be readily admit- 
ted by our readers, that the effects of excess in the 
use of fermented liquors are far more injurious in 
hot than in temperate climates. A very consider- 
able proportion of the mortality in the stations 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



149 



which have the reputation of being the mos 
healthy, is so directly traceable to such excess, that 
its continuance can scarcely be accounted for, except 
on the principle of " a short life and a merry 
Some years since, whi] tioned in 

West Indies, we conversed with a gentleman resi- 
dent in Tobago, who informed us that the average 
annual mortality amongst the Europeans of that 
island was one in three. Upon inquiry into the 
habits of the residents, we found that intemperance 
prevailed amongst them to a most fearful extent ; 
few getting up in the morning without their glass 
of sangaree (wine and water), and the strength of 
their beverage being gradually increased during the 
day, until it arrived at neat brandy at night. He 
further spoke of it as no uncommon occurrence for 
a party of friends who had met at a drinking bout, 
to be summoned within two or three clays to the 
funeral of one or two of their number. Our inform- 
ant was himself, apparently, quite indisposed to 
recognize between these occurrences any relation of 
cause and effect ; and was obviously under the be- 
lief, that, if it were not for the protecting influence 
of good wine and brandy, his life would be worth a 
yet shorter purchase. Our readers will probably 
form a different conclusion. We have en various 
occasions sought for information from those who had 
best preserved their health during a long residence 
in tropical climates, as to their habits in regard 
to the use of alcoholic liquors, and have almost 
13* 






THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



invariably found that they had practised extreme 
moderation, if not total abstinence. All medical 
men who have practised in India agree in attribut- 
ing the large proportion of cases of severe disease 
which present themselves among Europeans in that 
country to the immoderate indulgence in fermented 
liquors. A statistical proof of it is afforded by the 
fact quoted by us in a former Number of this Jour- 
nal (January, 1841), in regard to the experience of 
the British army in Bengal, in which temperance 
societies (on the old plan of abstinence from dis- 
tilled spirits only) had been established a few years 
previously. We must refer to our former abstract 
for a fuller statement of the results of the disuse 
of ardent spirits, and the diminished consumption of 
other fermented liquors ; and shall only here state, 
that the returns drawn up by the Inspector-General 
for the first six months of 1838 show that the 
average daily per-centage of sick belonging to the 
Temperance Society (about one third of the whole 
strength) was only 3f, whilst the daily per-centage 
amongst the remainder was 10^. Even this result 
does not give the most favorable view of the case : 
for many men joined the Temperance Society whose 
constitutions had been ruined by previous dissipa- 
tion, and several such were habitual tenants of the 
hospital until invalided. Since that time, the total 
bstinence principle has been introduced among 
Europeans in India and other tropical countries, 
and, we are assured, with the most favorable results. 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



151 



There has been no want of satisfactory medical tes- 
timony in its favor. Indeed, all our best writers on 
tropical diseases arc most explicit on this point. 
And we may here give the evidence recently given 
by Mr. Gardner, now superintendent of the Botanic 
Gardens in Ceylon, a well-educated surgeon, who 
spent several years of most active exertion in Brazil, 
and who penetrated into that country further than 
any other scientific European. During three years' 
travelling in that climate, under constant fatigue, 
and exposure to vicissitudes of weather and irreg- 
ularity of living, his only beverage, besides water, 
was tea, of which he had laid in a large stock pre- 
viously to his departure from Pernambuco. He was 
told, when he arrived at Brazil, that he would find 
it necessary to mix either wine or brandy with the 
water which he drank ; but a very short experience 
told him, not only that they are unnecessary, but 
that they are decidedly hurtful to those whose occu- 
pations lead them much into the sun. "Whoever 
drinks stimulating liquors," he says, " and travels 
day after day in the sun, will certainly suffer from 
headache ; and in countries where miasmata prevail, 
he will be far more likely to be attacked by the 
diseases which are there endemic." 

Now this testimony, from those who have tried 
the experiment of total abstinence in tropical cli- 
mates, and who have watched its results in others, 
must surely be regarded as of greater weight than 
any vague notion to the contrary, however prevalent 



152 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



such notion may be ; more especially as it corre- 
sponds exactly with what might be predicated upon 
scientific grounds. For, as we have already shown, 
the introduction of alcohol into the blood obstructs 
its depuration by the respiratory process ; more 
especially when the surrounding temperature is 
high, and the natural exhalation of carbonic acid 
is consequently diminished. Hence the system is 
subjected to the injurious influences of an imper- 
fectly decarbonized and aerated blood ; and the 
liver is called upon to do what the lungs are pre- 
vented from effecting ; the foundation being thus 
laid, in the habitual stimulation of the liver to 
undue functional activity, of inflammatory disease 
in that organ. 

The testimony of those who are exposed to vicis- 
situdes of climate is perhaps even more valuable 
than that of those who have to sustain continued 
heat or severe cold ; and under this aspect we regard 
the evidence of intelligent seamen as of peculiar 
importance, in addition to the force it derives from 
the well-known attachment of their class to spirit- 
uous liquors. That such regard the total abstinence 
principle as at any rate a safe one, may be inferred 
from the circumstance, that it is now carried into 
practice in a very considerable part of the merchant 
service in this country, and in a still larger propor- 
tion of American vessels ; and that the adoption of 
this plan is not known to occasion any difficulty in 
obtaining crews for the " temperance ships," when 



ALCOHOLIC DKi: 1 53 

a fair compensation is made in the superior quality 
of the provisions and allowances, or in the rate of 
wages, as an equivalent for the " stoppage of the 
grog : " in fact, such ships are often in positive 
request. And it is not a little worthy of note, that 
lower rates of insurance are frequently taken upon 
" temperance ships," than upon those in which the 
usual allowance of spirits is continued; it being well 
known, that a large proportion of losses at sea- are 
due to the intemperance of officers and men. We 
consider that an immense improvement was made 
in the victualling of the navy, when the allowance 
of grog was diminished, and coffee, cocoa, &c. were 
substituted ; and we trust, that the day is not far 
distant when the total abstinence principle may be 
recognized as worthy of government support in the 
army and navy, instead of being, as at present, 
checked or discouraged by the strong temptations 
to indulgence which are placed so completely in the 
way of the men, as to require great moral courage 
on their parts to resist them habitually. That the 
moral condition of sailors is more likely to be raised 
by the universal extension of the abstinence system 
amongst them, than by any other single measure of 
improvement, is unhesitatingly declared by all who 
have had experience of the superior conduct of the 
sailors on board the " temperance ships ; " and we 
feel assured, that the " cat " may be discarded when 
the grog is thrown overboard ; at least two thirds 
of the offences now punished by flogging having 



154 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



their origin, directly or indirectly, in alcoholic ex- 
citement. 

That there arc peculiar difficulties attending the 
complete withdrawal of the allowance of spirits in 
the naval service, we freely admit ; and it is well 
that these difficulties should be openly stated, in 
order that they may be fairly met, and, so far as 
possible, counteracted. We have requested a dis- 
tinguished medical officer attached to the late ant- 
arctic expedition to place us in possession of his 
opinions on this point ; and we are sure, that those 
who are acquainted with the scientific reputation of 
Dr. Joseph Dalton Hooker will consider the declared 
results of his experience under such trying cir- 
cumstances as highly important. In reply to our 
question, whether the habitual use of fermented 
liquors may be safely dispensed with on board-ship, 
he thus writes : — 

" I should say clearly so, and with benefit too ; provided 
the water be good. For the comfort of the men, the water 
should be palatable ; and this is far from being universally 
practicable. The officer can vary his viands and drink so 
much, that to have no spirits is no loss to him ; but there 
is no substitute for grog to the sailor. Beer is too bulky ; 
lemonade soon palls when daily used, and would not agree 
with. all. Cold tea is not palatable to every one, even if 
recommendable ; and the sailor gets hot tea once a day as 
it is, which in hot weather is almost once too often. You 
must not judge of the navy by the merchant service. In 
the latter, the sailor joins for immediate profit, and is will- 
ing to go through the voyage with bad water and no spirits, 
for it only lasts a few months or years ; mid, in joining an 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



loo 



abstinence ship, he does not forswear grog for ever, and lias 
opportunities of varying his beverage with his ship. The 
good navy sailor, on the other hand, ships for forty years 
(at least snch are the men we want and prize) ; and for five, 
or even seven years' commission at a stretch, in a very hot 
climate, where the water is bad, perhaps, he has bnt one 
diet, and no prospect of its being altered. 

" Perhaps the gravest objection to abolishing fermented 
liquors in the navy allowance is, that you cannot do so with 
the officers. They are allowed to buy and lay-in private 
and mess-stock, and the service allows them stowage. It 
is not so with the sailor. He is prohibited from laying in 
a sea-stock, both because no room is allowed him to store 
it, and because he could not afford it, or be trusted if he 
could. In the army, where there is little or no communi- 
cation between officers and men, and no intimacy, this 
would not tell so heavily as on board- ship, where every 
one has a great fellow-feeling with his shipmate, and where 
partiality, in the treatment of any class, with regard to the 
withholding of what each in his station is accustomed to on 
shore, could not fail to produce a very strong feeling. These 
are, however, secondary considerations. Allowing the water 
to be palatable, I have no hesitation in saying, that the 
habitual use of the spirit may be beneficially dispensed with, 
as far as the health of the crew is concerned." 

Two points in the foregoing extract are particu- 
larly worthy of note : first, the importance assigned 
to the goodness of the water ; and, secondly, the 
stress laid upon the example of the officers. It is 
well known that the substitution of iron tanks for 
wooden casks has been of the greatest benefit in 
improving the quality of the water on board-ship, 
as well as in saving stowage-room ; but much still 



156 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



remains to be done. If the accounts which we have 
recently heard, of the success of the application of 
electricity to the decomposition of those minute 
quantities of organic matter in water that has been 
long kept, to which its taint is due, — an application 
which, has been recently made by the well-known 
electrician Mr. Andrew Crosse, and for which he 
has taken steps to secure a patent, — should prove 
correct, a great boon will have been conferred on 
our naval service, which will render it much easier, 
we hope, to extend to it the still greater boon of 
the total abstinence reformation. With regard to the 
influence of the example of the higher classes, we 
see that it is far stronger on board-ship than on 
shore, either for evil or for good. Let the officer 
once determine to forego his moderate allowance of 
wine, spirits, or malt liquor, and the seaman will be 
easily induced to follow his example. The medical 
officers of the navy have it in their power to set on 
foot a reformation, the glory of which shall far sur- 
pass that of the greatest victories which history 
records ; for let them begin and persevere, without 
fear of ridicule or obloquy, and we feel assured that 
they will make certain progress, though it may be 
slow. 

In reply to our second query, whether the absti- 
nence in cold climates is attended with positive 
benefit, Dr. Hooker writes : — 

" I do think that the use of spirits in cold weather is 
ally prejudicial. I speak from my own experience. 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



157 



It is eery pleasant. The glass of grog warms the mouth, the 
throat, and the abdomen ; and this, when one is wet and 
cold, with no fire, and just before turning into damp blan- 
kets, is very enticing ; but it never did me one atom of 
good. The extremities are not warmed by it ; and, when a 
continuance of exertion or endurance is called for, the 
spirit does harm ; for then you arc colder or more fatigued 
a quarter or half an hour after it, than you would have 
been without it. Several of the men on board our ship, 
and amongst them some of the best, never touched grog 
during one or more of the antarctic cruises. They were not 
one whit the worse for their abstinence, but enjoyed the same 
perfect health that all the crew did throughout the four 
years' voyage. Many of our men laid in large stocks of 
coffee, and, when practicable, had it made for them after 
the watch on deck. These men, I believe, would willingly 
have given up their spirits in exchange for coffee ; but we 
could not ensure them the latter on the requisite occasions. 
To the southward of the antarctic circle, or of lat. 50 degrees, 
you may say, it blew a gale three days out of five ; there 
was always a heavy swell running ; the whole ship and 
bedding were damp from condensation, where not so from 
shipping seas ; the atmosphere of the lower deck (with 
hatches battened down) such that you could not see from 
one mess-table to another ; and this for days together. 
There is neither standing, sitting, nor lying in comfort. 
All hands, officers and men, up and ready; the one watch 
on deck, the two others on the qui vive for any emergency. 
In cruising amongst the ice, the ship is perhaps put about 
every half-hour ; and Ave have been for sixteen hours in this 
state. Every time we go on deck, we are drenched with 
cold salt water, which sometimes freezes as it falls ; and, 
when you go below, there is really nothing to do but ' lick 
your paws,' as the men say. Nothing hot can be got." 

Certainly, a more uncomfortable situation, short 
14 






THE IMIYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



of positive danger, can scarcely be imagined. Let 
se what Dr. Hooker says of the use of spirits 
on these occasions, in answer to our third query. — 
whether there exist any circumstances which, in his 
opinion, render the occasional use of alcoholic liquors 
beneficial : — 

" This is perhaps as extreme an instance as I could bring 

forward of the demand for spirits. Now I do not believe, 

that to * splice the main-brace ' half a dozen times, or even 

more, in this sixteen horns, would do any good in the way 

of giving strength ; but to refuse the men some grog would 

be a great hardship. I have seen grog given, half a gill at 

a time, thrice, I think, under such circumstances, with no 

perceptible harm ; but I do not suppose it did any good ; 

and more would, I am sure, have done mischief. The fact 

ing it did good in one way : it made the men joyful, 

not from excitation, but as we all rejoice on cutting the 

Christmas pudding ; and I quite believe, that under that 

continued exertion the bad effects were dissipated. But 

this is a very different thing from doing any real physical 

good. I can well suppose the effect to have been, though 

inappreciably, the contrary. Of one tiling I am sure, and 

that is, that no one was more ready for a repetition of the 

Lon from taking the stimulus : the intervening time 

more pleasantly and comfortably passed. It may be a 

on whether, granting the spirits to have clone some 

towards exhilarating, when no modern appliances 

could be available, it would be desirable to withdraw it on 

3. It is a choice of evils pcrb 

" I know of only one occasion on which the spirits ap- 

nsable; and that was when a little more 

lon, at the crowning of a mighty and long-continued 

. was demanded. Thus ng in the 



ies beset, or falls to leewai 
This takes two or three minutes ; but, 

wind, it takes many hours to get her out. No1 
command, the sails arc of no use ; and the ice prevents 
moving in any way but with it to leeward.^ Under I 
circumstances, the only way to get her out : 
ropes from the ship to the larger masses of ice, and wai 
her out by main force against the wind. Now, I hav< 
every officer and man in the shin straining at the capstan 
for hours together, through snow and sleet, with the 
spiration running down our faces and bodies like water. 
Towards the end of such a struggle, at the mighty crown- 
ing effort, I have seen a little grog work wonders. I could 
not have drunk hot coffee without stopping to cool ; nor, if 
I had, do I think it would have supplied the temporary 
amount of strength which was called for on the spot under 
circumstances like this. These, however, are extreme cases. 
which do not affect the sailor in his ordinary condition, 
and which any ship might be well prepared for." 

Fully agreeing with Dr. Hooker, that we know 
of nothing which, under such trying circumstances, 
could be advantageously substituted for the alcoholic 
stimulus, we may add the remark, that, where the 
habitual use of it is relinquished, a much smaller 
amount of it will suffice to produce the required 
stimulation, than when a large allowance is daily 
imbibed. Every medical practitioner must be aware 
of the necessity of regulating the quantity he admin- 
isters for any particular object by the usual habits 
of his patient ; a single glass of wine doing that with 
one, which an entire bottle would scarcely effect 
with another more seasoned vessel. We must not 
omit Dr. Hooker's conclusion : — 



160 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFE< 



" The great practical difficulty on board ship is, that you 
have no available substitute for bad water but good grog, 
as the sailor is at present situated. I cannot, however, but 
think that, with more attention to the comforts of the 
sailor, his own love of liquor would diminish ; and that he 
might be weaned from it by the officers, though the depriv- 
ing him of it by the Government would be a dangerous 
experiment." 

We shall now pursue our inquiry through other 
occupations and habits of life ; and in proof that 
the severest muscular labor, continued through long- 
periods of time, and under circumstances of the most 
trying character, is perfectly compatible with total 
abstinence from alcoholic liquors, we shall present 
our readers with a few r selections from a large body 
of testimony which we have obtained from sources 
worthy of complete reliance. 

A gentleman residing at Uxbridge thus writes : — 

" In the year 1841, I obtained the amount of bricks 
made in our neighborhood by our largest maker ; and the 
result in favor of the teetotallers was very satisfactory. Out 
of upwards of twenty-three millions of bricks made, the 
average per man made by the beer- drinkers in the season 
was 760,269 ; whilst the average for the teetotallers was 
00, — which is 35,131 in favor of the latter. The high- 
est number made by a beer-drinker was 880,000 ; the highest 
number made by a teetotaller was 890,000 : leaving 10,000 
in favor of the teetotaller. The lowest number made by a 
bccr-drinkcr was 659,000 ; the lowest number made by 
a teetotaller was 746,000 : leaving 87,000 in favor of the 
teetotaller. Satisfactory as the account appears, I believe 
it would have been much more so, if the teetotallers could 
have obtained the whole gang of abstainers, as they were 



ALCOHOLIC DB] 101 

very frequently hindered by the drinking > of the 

gang ; and, when the order is thus broken, the work cannot 
go on." 

Brick-making, we belie * ( 
one of 'the most laborious of out-door e lents : 

at any rate, it is one which involves exposure to all 
the vicissitudes of weather, and therefore it may be 
taken as a fair sample of severe labor under trying 
circumstances. Respecting the al urn, we 

think it should be especially remarked, that it does 
not record the result of a trial made expressly for 
the purpose, with full advantages on bol 
continued for a short time, duri 
for victory might be supposed to len 
titious aid.; but that it shows the act;, nt of 

work done during an entire season by bodies of men 
working on both systems, but not pi 
each other. 

The following statement by Mr. William Fair- 
bairn, an eminent machine-maker, of 
at the head of a firm employing between one and 
two thousand workmen, will be found in tl 
tary Report for 1840 : — 

" I strictly prohibit on my works the rise of beer or fer- 
mented liquors of any sort, or of tobacco. I enforce the 
prohibition of fermented liquors so strongly, that, if I found 
any man transgressing the rule in that respect, I would 
instantly discharge him without allowing him time to put 
on his coat. In those foundries in which there is drinking 
throughout the works all day long, it is observed of the 
men employed as workmen, that they do not work so well : 
14* 



162 



EFFECTS OF 



their perceptions are clouded, and they arc stupefied and 
heavy. I have provided water for the use of the men in 
every department of the works. In summer-time the men 
engaged in the strongest work, such as the strikers to the 
heavy forges, drink water very copiously. In general the men 
who drink water are really more active and do more work, 
and arc more healthy, than the workmen who drink fer- 
mented liquors. 

" I observed, on a late journey to Constantinople, that 
the boatmen or rowers to the caiques, who are perhaps the 
first rowers in the world, drink nothing but water ; and 
they drink that profusely during the hot months of the 
summer. The boatmen and water-carriers of Constantino- 
ple are decidedly, in my opinion, the finest men in Europe 
as regards their physical development, and they are all 
water- drinkers : they may take a little sherbet, but in other 
respects are what we should call in this country teetotal- 
lers/' (p. 252.) 

The following is the published testimony of Mr. 
ah Hunt, a well-known agriculturist in Glou- 
cestershire, as to the efficient performance of harvest 
work on the abstinence system. His experiment is 
further valuable as showing the positive advantage 
gained by the substitution of articles of solid food 
for alcoholic liquors of equal cost, — a point of 
great economic importance to the laboring classes. 
After mentioning the terms on which his work had 
been done in former years (namely, 8s. 6d. per acre, 
and an allowance of three gallons of cider, or an 
additional nt of 3s. per acre), he continues : — 

" I let eighty acres of grass to mow, harvest, and stack, 
ur of those who did the like last summer, with three 



. ;£OLIC DBINKS. 163 

others, at $s. Gd. an acre in money; and, instead of 3 
acre for drink, an equal sum to be expended in the purchase 
of unintoxicating drink and food, on condition that nei- 
ther of them should taste any fermented liquor during the 
progress of the work. Three of the men had signed the 
pledge in the previous winter : the other four did so about 
a fortnight after they began to work. 

" They commenced on the 10th of June, and finished on 
the 26th of the next month ; which was longer by two weeks 
than they would have been if the weather had proved fine. 
The whole of the work, without the least exception, was 
performed more to my satisfaction than ever was the case 
before. During the progress of it, they gave abundant 
proof that they were equal to as much work as any seven 
men in the neighborhood, and also to as much as they 
themselves had been equal to at any time whilst taking 
intoxicating drinks. They were not picked men ; foiu of 
them, about the respective ages of oo, 41, 30, and 29, hav- 
ing worked for me for several years; the others, aged 41, 
30, and 20, having been engaged at various times in the 
spring, without any intention of retaining them diuing 
the summer ; and that they were not of more than average 
strength may be inferred from the fact, that I was told 
before they began ; — ' We know very well how your ex- 
periment will end ; for there are but two men out of the 
seven that can do a day's work : they will be knocked up 
before they have mowed two hours.' At the end of the 
first day's mowing, it was, however, found that they had 
done more than any other men in the neighborhood ; and, 
as they thus proceeded without being ' knocked up,' the 
tables were turned, and I was then told that they performed 
so well in consequence of their good living. How this was 
obtained, I propose presently to show ; but, before doing 
so, I must, in justice to the men, add, that their conduct 
during the summer has presented a striking contrast to 
much that I have witnessed in ale and cider- drinkers. I 



164 



THE niYsIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



have not heard any improper expression escape either of 
them during the whole period, and then general behavior 
has been very creditable. 

" Instead of intoxicating drink, they used tea and cocoa, 
sweetened with sugar or treacle and skim-milk. The fol- 
lowing are the quantities used, with the cost, viz. : 2 lb. of 
tea, 221b. of cocoa, 31 J lb. of sugar, 4jlb. of treacle, and 60 
gallons of skim-milk; all of which cost £3. 12s. instead of 
(as at the rate of the cider last year) £12. There thus 
remained £8. 8s. to expend in food ; and for one shilling 
more than this sum, or £8. 9s. they were enabled to procure 
the following, viz. : one hunched-weight of beef, one hun- 
ched-weight of bacon, four sacks of potatoes, and one sack 
of flour, with twenty pounds of suet for puddings ; all of 
which " good living,' be it remember eel, was obtained out 
of the saving effected by the substitution of an unintoxi- 
cating drink for the intoxicating and expensive one of the 
previous summer." (Bristol Temperance Herald, Sept. 1841.) 

As this, bemor the testimony of a single individ- 
ual, might be thought open to question, we shall 
add a summary of the testimony of thirteen farmers 
and laborers in the neighborhood of Bodwin, Corn- 
wall, who have for some years been in the habit of 
prosecuting their harvest operations without any 
allowance of alcoholic liquors to the men engaged 
in them ; — an equivalent of some other kind 1 
of course given. The total number of acres of hay 
and corn harvested by them on this plan in 1846 
1,518; and, if to this be added the quantity 
harvested by teetotallers who were mixed up with 
-drinkers, the total amount harvested on the 
inence principle by the farmers attending Bod- 
min market would not be short of three thousand 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 1 65 

acres. This, we think it will be allowed, is a scale 
of operations quite sufficient to afford satisfactory- 
results. The testimony of those who employ none 
but total abstinence laborers is unanimous in favor 
of the system. " I feel assured," says one, " that 
work can be performed better on the teetotal prin- 
ciple, and that quite as much work can be done as 
on the use of alcoholic drinks. I am quite satisfied 
of total abstinence being more congenial to health, 
strength, and happiness in the harvest-field than the 
old drinking system, and am resolved, as long as I 
remain a farmer, to save all my hay and corn on that 
principle." — " I am glad to inform you," says an- 
other, " that I have done my labor this harvest with 
comfort and contentment on the teetotal principle, 
as I have for the past eight successive harvests." 
"Our parish," writes a laborer, "is divided into 
small farms ; and many of the farmers have their 
harvest- work done by men who have to go to the 
mine or stream- work, and do their day's work first, 
and then in the afternoon they go in the harvest- 
field ; paid most of them say they would rather have 
teetotal beverages than intoxicating drinks. I have 
passed through nine harvests on the teetotal prin- 
ciple, and three I have been on the cold water 
system, and I find this is best of all. I have been 
at it for a month together, and I could always do 
my work to the satisfaction of my employers ; and 
the men I have worked with have said that teeto- 
talism is best." Another farmer says, " We have 






THE rilYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



I our hay and corn for eight or nine years to 
itisfaction ; the last two years the best of all. 
The last harvest has been passed with pleasure to 
the men (though not pledged teetotallers) and to 
myself. Not an oath nor an angry word has been 
heard. We have worked in times of necessity till 
ten o'clock : and I never heard one say that he 
tired. One of them cut an acre and a half of wheat 
after two o'clock ; two acres a day per man was the 
average quantity cut; and they worked with such 
comfort to themselves, that they wish to go through 
another harvest on the same principle." — "I have 
sent," writes another farmer, " the return of the 
ind corn I have cut and saved this year ; and I 
can say, that I have done it much more comfortably 
on the teetotal principle than we ever did when we 
used malt liquor : the work-people have done their 
work well and with great spirit." — " Without any 
brawl or any thing uncomfortable," is the additional 
testimony of another. — "As to the comfort of the 
plan," writes another, " I can say, the more I have 
of it, the better I like it. Never did I do my work 
so easily, nor enjoy my health so well, as I have 
since I abstained from all intoxicating drinks ; and. 
as to the work-people in the harvest-fields, all ap- 
peared to be pleased and satisfied: and some of 
them, who were not teetotallers, said that they would 
sooner work on the teetotal plan than on the drink- 
ing system, if they could be attended to properly. 
My full conviction is, that, if farmers would but put 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



167 



half the expense in solids and teetotal drinks for 
their men that they put in beer and cider, their 
men would be better pleased, and their work be 
better done, and a great deal of sin would be pre- 
vented/' Where an improved diet has been substi- 
tuted, in the Bodmin district, for alcoholic drinks, 
it has been found that the laborers, like Mr. Hunt's, 
increased in weight during the severe labor of har- 
vest, as much as five pounds per man on the average. 

We think that we have now adduced sufficient 
testimony of the inutility, to say the least, of 
fermented liquors, as regards the maintenance of 
muscular strength in field labor. It is obvious that 
practice here fully bears out theory ; and that the 
ritution of solid aliment containing the mate- 
rials of muscular tissue, for a liquid which contains 
but little of these, and whose principal constituent 
is a heat-producing substance, — never less wanted 
when laborious exertion is being made under 
the summer sun, — is attended with the very result 
which the physiologist would predict, namely, an 
'increase in the amount of muscular substance, and 
quently in muscular vigor. If we only go 
length of admitting that they are unnecessary, 
duty of doing our utmost to check their em- 
ployment seems to us imperative ; since it is the 
universal testimony of those who have fairly tried 
bstmence system, that the temper and habits 
■I'knion. who were previously " moderate drink- 



168 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



ers," are in every way improved by it, — to bay 
nothing of the avoidance of absolute intoxication 
with all its evils, which, although the most obvious, 
is not perhaps the most important result of the 
abstinence system ; since, for one drunkard, there 
are scores who are injuring their bodies and souls, 
their families and their employers, and who are 
consequently in the end more or less burdensome 
to the public at large, by what is accounted amongst 
them but a moderate use of fermented liquors. 

We shall next adduce evidence of the equal 
inability of alcoholic drinks to sustain the bodily 
powers in prolonged labor of other kinds ; and we 
may first mention a very striking case which came 
within our own knowledge a few years since. A 
gentleman with whom we were then intimate, and 
who, though moderate in his own habits, was by no 
means a disciple of the total abstinence system, 
informed us, that he had once had the command of 
a merchant vessel from New South Wales to Eng- 
land, which had sprung so bad a leak, soon after 
ng the Cape of Good Hope, as to require the 
continued labor, not merely of the crew, but of 
the officers and passengers, to keep her afloat by the 
use of the pumps, during the remainder of her voy- 
age, a period of nearly three months. At first, the 
men were greatly fatigued at the termination of 
their "spell" at the pumps: and, after drinking 
their allowance of grog, would "turn iri" without 
taking a proper supply of nourishment. The 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



169 



consequence was, that their vigor was decidedly 
diminishing, and their feeling of fatigue of course 
increasing ; as our physiological knowledge would 
lead us to expect. By our friend's direction, coffee 
and cocoa were substituted for the grog ; a hot 
" mess" of these beverages being provided, with 
the biscuit and meat, at the conclusion of every 
watch. The consequence was, that the men felt 
inclined for a good meal off the latter ; their vigor 
returned, their fatigue diminished, and, after twelve 
weeks of incessant and severe labor (with no inter- 
val longer than four hours), the ship was brought 
into port, with all on board of her, in as good con- 
dition as they had ever been in their lives. When 
visiting Messrs. Boulton and Watt's celebrated fac- 
tory at the Soho, Birmingham, some years since, 
we were much struck by the Herculean aspect of a 
particular workman, who was engaged in forging 
the steel dies (used in coining) into the massive 
blocks of iron in which they are imbedded. This, 
we were informed, was the most laborious occupa- 
tion in the whole factory, requiring a most power- 
ful arm to wield the heavy hammer whose blows 
were necessary to ensure the union of the two met- 
als, and involving also constant exposure to a very 
high temperature. The day was sultry and oppres- 
sive ; and the additional heat of the forge was, to 
our feelings, almost unbearable. But we stood 
awhile, watching this gigantic workman, the girth 
of whose chest seemed twice that of any ordinary 
15 



170 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OP 

ject, whilst, naked to the waistband, and with 

dration streaming down his head and body, 
the rapid and skilful blows of his ponder- 
ous hammer upon the heated mass. At the first 
pause, we asked him (from mere curiosity, for tee- 
totallism was then scarcely talked of) what liquor 
lie drank ; and he replied by pointing to a whole 
row of ginger-beer bottles behind him, the contents 
of one of which he imbibed every ten or fifteen 
minutes. He stated, upon further questioning, 
that he found it quite impossible to drink alcoholic 
liquors whilst at his work ; their effect being to 
diminish his strength to such a degree as to render 
him unfit for it. 

This case might be regarded as a solitary excep- 
tion ; but the fact is, we believe, borne out by 
general experience, — men who have to carry on 
laborious occupations at a high temperature, as in 
iron-foundries, gas-works, sugar-houses, &c. finding 
that the use of alcoholic liquors, whilst they are so 
employed, is decidedly prejudicial to them. Most 
such men, however, are in the habit of drinking a 
moderate amount of beer or other fermented liquors 
in the intervals of their work, and many more drink 
&cess ; the idea that such liquors enable them to 
support their exertion being a very prevalent one 
among all classes. The matter was long ago put 
test, however, by Dr. Bcddocs. who, under a 
conviction of the worse than useless character of 
fermented liquors for this purpose, went to the 



ALCOHOL!' 171 

orge in Portsmouth dockyard, and, selecting 
a dozen of the smiths, proposed to them that six of 
them should drink only water for one week, whilst 
the others took the usual allowance of beer. Th< 
men, convinced that snch a system would no1 
swer, refused to try the experiment, and were only 
induced to do so on the promise of a reward if they 
succeeded in beating the beer-drinkers. On the 
first day, the two sets of men were very much alike ; 
on the second, the water-drinkers complained less 
of fatigue than the others ; the third day, the advan- 
tage was decidedly in favor of the abstainers ; the 
fourth and fifth days, it became still more so ; and, 
on the Saturday night, the water-drinkers declared 
that they never felt so fresh in their lives as they 
had felt during that week. This result may fairly 
be viewed with suspicion, on account of the strong- 
inducement which this benevolent but not always 
judicious physician had placed before the water- 
drinkers to procure their trial of his system ; and it 
might also be objected, that a week's experience 
was not enough to test it. There is ample evidence 
at the present time, however, contained in the vari- 
ous publications devoted to the total abstinence 
cause, that labor of the severest kind, and under 
exposure to the greatest vicissitudes of heat and 
cold, may be fully as well sustained without alco- 
holic drinks, as with the most moderate and regu- 
lated employment of them. We shall not quote 
from these publications, however, because their 



172 



THE niYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



statements may appear to bear the stamp of partial- 
ity. It is comparatively easy, it may be objected, 
to get up a body of evidence in favor of any system 
of quackery ; but the whole truth must be known, 
before we can give assent to doctrines so completely 
opposed to the experience and common sense of 
mankind. We have already grappled with the lat- 
ter part of the objection, and have shown that the 
experience of mankind at large is decidedly in favor 
of habitual abstinence from fermented liquors ; and, 
in regard to the particular question of evidence, we 
trust that our readers will give us some credit for 
discrimination when we state, that w r e have our- 
selves collected and carefully examined a great 
variety of evidence from all parts of the kingdom, 
some of it furnished by unwilling and much more 
by indifferent witnesses. Among the documents 
which we have before us is a letter from a " moul- 
der " in the Gorbals iron-foundry at Glasgow, con- 
taining the following statement : — "I can assure 
you, that temperance men can do more work and 
better work than those who use or indulge in spir- 
ituous liquors of any kind. I have joined the Total 
Abstinence Society eleven years ago, and from that 
day to this hour I have abandoned the use of spirit- 
uous drinks ; and the happy result has been, that 1 
am better in health, and abler for work, than when 
I was indulging in the use of those delusive liquors. " 
From Rotherham we have the testimony of a hundred 
reformed drunkards, of various occupations ; among 



ALCOHOLIC DIUXKS. 



173 



them, that of S. S. who has been a teetotaller now 
about seven years, and whose work is moulding iron 
plates for spades and shovels, which is, taking it 
throughout the day, one of the hottest and most 
laborious occupations known. We have received 
from Leeds the testimony of thirty-four men (and 
we are assured that many more might have been 
easily obtained), whose signatures are appended to 
the following statement : — " We, the undersigned, 
having practised the principles of total abstinence 
from all intoxicating liquors, for the several periods 
stated below, and having during that time been 
engaged at very laborious occupations, voluntarily 
testify that we are able to perform our toil with 
greater ease and satisfaction to ourselves, and we 
believe more to the satisfaction of our employers 
also, than when we drank moderately of these 
liquors : our general health and circumstances have 
also been considerably improved." Of these men, 
twelve belonged to the class whose occupations are 
commonly regarded as peculiarly trying ; seven of 
them being furnace-men at foundries and gas-works, 
two of them sawyers, one a whitesmith, one a glass- 
blower, and the last a railway night- guard. The 
duration of the periods of abstinence of these men 
ranged from one to ten years. The following is 
the experience of a wood-sawyer of Glasgow, whose 
very well- written letter now lies before us : — ik I 
have wrought at this laborious employment for 
twenty-six years in the city of Glasgow, fifteen 
15* 



174 



ttYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



years of which I was under the fatal delusion that 
these liquors were strengthening, and that my hard 
work required that I should use them for the pur- 
pose. I joined the Total Abstinence Society eleven 
years ago, and from that day to this hour I have 
abandoned the use of these drinks ; and the happy 
result has been, that I have been enabled to endure 
more fatigue, do my work better, and do more of it, 
than when I was indulging in the use of these delu- 
sive liquors.' 1 The following is another very strik- 
ing testimony, given by a nail-maker at Glasgow : — 
4 * I have been a teetotaller these five years ; and 
though I previously believed that strong drink was 
necessary to aid me in my work, yet, since I have 
become an abstainer, I find hard work easier, and 
long hours more readily to be endured. I am also 
one of the Glasgow Fire Brigade, and was once at 
a great fire at Mr. Thompson's mill for seventy -three 
hours in succession, with nothing but coffee and 
ginger-beer, and endured while all my comrades 
were beat and fell away." In the month of April 
of the present year, the Temperance Society of Leeds 
closed their monthly meetings for the season with a 
ki working man's demonstration," at which the repre- 
sentatives of twenty-one laborious occupations pub- 
licly testified to the compatibility of hard labor with 
perfect health on the total abstinence plan. The 
duration of their trial was in no instance less than 
three years, and in many instances extended to 
m; the shortest of these periods being, we 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



175 



should think, quite sufficient to test the value of 
the system. 

We do not think it necessary to adduce any 
further evidence in support of our main position, 
that total abstinence from fermented liquors is con- 
sistent with the maintenance of the most perfect 
health, even under the constant demands created 
by labor of the severest kind, or by extremes of 
temperature ; and that, on the whole, the abstinence 
system is preferable, on physical grounds alone, to 
the most moderate habitual use of them. The most 
powerful claim, however, which the total abstinence 
advocates have upon public attention, lies rather (to 
our apprehension at least) in the moral benefits 
which their system is calculated to produce ; and it 
is with reference to these that we would earnestly 
recommend our readers to examine for themselves, 
whether a great deal that is commonly believed as 
to the therapeutic use of alcoholic liquors is not 
equally baseless with the notion of the necessity of 
their habitual use for the sustenance of the body in 
health. There can be no reasonable doubt that a 
great deal more wine, &c. is employed as medicine 
than there is the least occasion for. It is so pleasant 
a remedy, that we have recourse to it on the slight- 
est occasion. People prescribe it for themselves, 
because they think they understand its action suffi- 
ciently well to supersede the necessity of proper 
medical advice, and because it is so palatable and 
comforting a draught. Other medicines are usually 



176 



THE riiYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



nauseous to the taste, and our patients are glad 
enough to get rid of them when they have done 
their work ; hut this is too frequently continued 
long after the purpose which it is supposed to an- 
swer is no longer required. And there is abundance 
of melancholy proof, that a craving for fermented 
liquors, which has ultimately led to habits of the 
most degrading intemperance, has been not unfre- 
quently created, even in most delicate, refined, 
and high-principled women, by the habitual use of 
them when introduced under the guise of medicine 
by the physician. The records of total abstinence 
societies, moreover, show that in a very large num- 
ber of cases in which drunkards, supposed to be 
reformed, have "broken out," or returned to their 
intemperate habits, the cause of the relapse has 
been the use of fermented liquors under medical 
direction, the mere taste of which has excited the 
craving that seemed long subdued. Hence, in some 
of the forms of "pledge," the promise is made to 
refrain from even the medicinal use of alcoholic 
liquors ; which we regard as a most dangerous and 
unwarrantable proceeding, since there are cases (as 
Ave shall presently attempt to show) in which no 
other agents can have the same beneficial effect, 
and the difference may even be one of life or death. 
The proper course we apprehend to be, that those 
who take the total abstinence pledge should prom- 
ise not to take alcoholic liquors, except when these 
are ordered by a qualified medical practitioner ; and 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



177 



it is the obvious duty of the medical profession to 
refrain from ordering them, except where the indi- 
cation of benefit to be derived from their use is of 
the plainest possible kind. 

We believe that if the question of the therapeutic 
use of fermented liquors be placed in the same as- 
pect as that on which we have on former occasions 
attempted to show that the action of almost all our 
remedies must be at present viewed, — namely, as 
quite open to that new kind of investigation which 
consists in the comparison, not of different methods 
of treatment one with another, but of the results of 
each method of treatment with the natural course 
of the disease, — a great deal of evil of various kinds 
will soon be done away with. At present, nothing in 
the annals of quackery can be more truly empirical 
than the mode in which fermented liquors are di- 
rected or permitted to be taken by a large proportion 
of medical practitioners. If their physiological ac- 
tion be really as grossly misunderstood as we deem 
it to be, — if their benefit can be looked for in little 
else than their stimulating effects, and the belief in 
their permanently-supporting character be really 
ill-founded, — if we are to distrust the grateful sen- 
sations which commonly follow immediately upon 
their use, and to look for evil in their more remote 
consequences (as the experience of the results of 
their habitual employment would lead us to do), — 
then it is obvious that a great change will be needed 
in our usual practice in this respect, in order to 



17s 



■ ^LOGICAL . 



bring it into conformity with the mere corporeal 
requirements of our patients, to say nothing of its 
bearing upon their moral welfare. We shall not 
presume to attempt a full exposition of all the 
circumstances in which the therapeutic use of fer- 
mented liquors is indicated : but we shall endeavor 
vn a few general principles, based upon 
the data which we may derive from the phenomena 
of their physiological action, and from practical 
experience as to their habitual or occasional use in 
the state of health. 

In the first place, then, we may lay it down as a 
ral principle, that, as alcohol cannot serve as 
a pabulum for the healthy tissues of the body, so it 
cannot give any direct support to the system in 
furnishing the materials of those morbid products, 
which frequently constitute a drain upon the system 
that may become most serious from its amount 
and continuance. But it will be said, that ample 
experience has shown that the administration of 
fermented liquors, in cases of excessive purulent 
discharge (for example), is the only means of sus- 
taining the feeble powers of the system : and we 
are not disposed to deny that benefit is derivable 
from them. But we believe that this benefit is to be 
looked for in their stimulating action upon the 
digestive apparatus, which enables it to prepare 
and introduce into the system such an amount of 
the nutriment that constitutes its real pabulum, as 
it would not otherwise be able to assimilate. "We 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 179 

believe it will be found, that, if our chief trust be 
placed in fermented liquors in such cases, failure is 
almost inevitable ; and that the power of the system 
will depend, not upon the quantity of wine or por- 
ter that can be poured in without intoxicating effects. 
but upon the amount of solid nutriment which the 
patient can digest by their assistance. The quan- 
tity of alcohol given should therefore be carefully 
regulated by this indication ; and it should be 
reduced in proportion as the demand for nutriment 
is lessened, and the tone of the stomach improves. 
There is another large class of cases with which 
practitioners in large towns are especially familiar, 
in which it is of the utmost importance to sustain 
the powers of the system for a time against some 
depressing influence, even though there be no con- 
siderable demand for material in the form of an 
extensive suppuration, or the like. Such cases 
present themselves especially in ill-fed and intem- 
perate subjects, especially among such as have been 
exposed to the additional depressing influences of 
bad ventilation and drainage. Almost every dis- 
order in their frames has a tendency to assume the 
asthenic form : and it is of the greatest consequence, 
as in the instance already alluded to, to obtain the 
assimilation of nutritious matter. Here, too, we 
believe that fermented liquors are indicated, not so 
much as general stimulants, but as exercising upon 
the digestive apparatus an influence which no other 
remedy with which we are acquainted can so forci- 



180 THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

bly exert. But for this purpose we apprehend, that 
the quantity requisite is far smaller than that which 
is usually administered; and that great injury is 
often done by over-stimulating the stomach, and 

.by positively weakening its power of supplying 
the real wants of the system. 

It is, again, by their temporary stimulus to the 
digestive operations, that fermented liquors seem to 
be occasionally useful during pregnancy and lacta- 
tion. We believe that in every case in which the 
appetite is good, and the general sy tlthy, 

the habitual use of these stimulants is positively 
injurious ; and the regular administration of alcohol, 
with the professed object of sustaining the strength 
under the demand occasioned by the copious flow 
of milk, is one of the grossest pieces of quackery 
that can be perpetrated by any practitioner, legal 
or illegal. For alcohol affords no sing] >nt of 

secretion; and, if the materials of the latter are 
introduced into the system as fast as they are drawn 
out of it, there is no exhaustion. In a healthy 
subject, and under a proper system of general man- 
agement, this will be the case; and alcohol can do 
nothing but harm. But there are cases — very 
however, in comparison with the whole — in which 
the conditions of pregnancy and lactation produce 
an irritable state of the stomach, that prevents it 
from digesting, or even receiving, that food which 

system really demands ; and in some of these 

have known the regular administration of a 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



181 



small quantity of alcoholic liquor more efficacious 
than any other remedy. In one instance of this 
kind that fell particularly under our notice, in which 
the mother was most anxious to avoid the assistance 
of fermented liquors, the lactation must have been 
early stopped, on account of the want of functional 
power in the stomach, and the very poor quality of 
the milk, had it not been that the administration 
of a single glass of wine or tumbler of porter per 
day was found to promote the digestive power to 
the requisite degree, and thus to produce a general 
invigoration of the system, which was speedily man- 
ifested in the improved condition of the child as 
well as of the mother. The small allowance we 
have mentioned never required an increase, and was 
relinquished without difficulty soon after the wean- 
ing of the infant. 

We believe, then, that cases are of no infrequent 
occurrence in which, under some temporary depress- 
ing influence, the powers of the digestive apparatus 
are not adequate to supply the demand upon it 
made by the system, and that recourse may in such 
cases be advantageously had to alcohol as an equally 
temporary stimulus. But it is worthy of considera- 
tion, whether, when it is thus administered for 
purely medicinal purposes, it may not be desirable 
to give it in such a medicinal form as will render it 
not peculiarly palatable or inviting, in order that 
the patient may have no inducement to continue the 
use of it after the real demand has ceased to exist. 
16 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

re is another class of cases in which it appears 
- that alcohol may serve a most important pur- 
that no other substance can answer. We refer 
in which there is a positive deficiency of 
heat-producing materials in the system, and in which 
the digestive apparatus is for the time incapable of 
introducing such as are ordinarily most serviceable 
for this purpose. Such a condition is the result of 
many exhausting diseases, and more particularly 
of certain forms of fever, in which, without any 
icular local affection, the powers of the whole 
m are prostrated by the action of a poison 
introduced into the blood. Day after day, the fatty 
matter of the body is used up in the respiratory 
process, and no food is taken in to replace it ; and 
thus, as in cases of simple starvation, the patients 
die of cold, unless some means be taken to sustain 
their heat. Xow, there is reason to believe, that, 
when alcoholic liquors are received into the stom- 
ach, they are taken into the circulation, not by the 
•Is, but by the more direct channel afforded by 
the permeable walls of the capillaries of the mucous 
membrane. Theory would teach us, that through 
such a thin septum the alcoholic fluid, being thinner 
than the blood, would pass towards the latter by 
ondosmose ; and experiment fully confirms this view, 
since it was found by Sir B. Brodie, that alcohol, 
strong doses, exerts its usual effects upon the 
em, even though the thoracic duct be tied ; and 
MM". Bouchardat and Sandras have obtained evi- 



. 






of its presence in the blood of the gastric 

veins. Tims, then, alcoholic fluids introduced into 
the stomach can be directly absorbed, without 
of that preparation which the oleaginous or farina- 
ceous materials of combustion require; and 
well understand, therefore, how, in the advanced 
stages of fever, when every thing depends upon the 
power of sustaining life until the poison has been 
expelled from the system, alcohol should be a more 
powerful therapeutic agent than any other. A severe 
epidemic of the kind we allude to (the synochus of 
Cullen), which we witnessed some years ago, afforded 
us the opportunity of seeing the results of opposite 
modes of treatment in two sets of cases as nearly 
similar as might be : in neither were any very 
decided measures adopted during the early stages 
of the fever, for none seemed called for ; but in one 
set the same expectant practice was continued to 
the end, whilst in the other the administration of 
wine and spirit was commenced as soon as the 
weakness of the pulse and the coldness of the ex- 
tremities indicated the incipient failure of the circu- 
lating and calorifying powers. The quantity was 
increased as the necessities of the patient seemed to 
require ; and we remember one case in which a 
bottle of sherry and twelve ounces of whiskey every 
twenty-four hours was the allowance for some days. 
The result was, that the mortality on the former 
system was at least three times as great as on the 
latter ; the patients dying from simple exhaustion 



184 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



and cold, and no local lesion being detectible on 
post-mortem examination. 

Now, in where alcohol is thus beneficial, 

there is an absence of any thing like stimulating 
effects. The pulse is usually lowered in frequency, 
instead of being accelerated, and the brain is brought 
back to more regular action, instead of being dis- 
turbed. That a very large quantity of alcohol can 
be thus given without producing a stimulant effect 
{and the same is probably true of alcohol taken 
during exposure to very severe cold) is probably 
due to the fact of its being burned off almost as 
fast as it is taken into the circulating system, so 
that it never accumulates to such an extent as to 
act injuriously on the brain. We are acquainted 
with no case in which the beneficial influence of a 
particular remedy, when administered with caution 
and discrimination, is more obvious ; and we would 
strongly urge upon those who intemperately (as we 
think) advocate the total abstinence cause, and who 
deny that alcohol ean ever exert any beneficial influ- 
ence on the human body, to consider whether so 
i a case is not here made out, as to show that 
one exception, at any rate, must be made to their 
srtions. 

These are the principal classes of cases in which 

the regular use of alcoholic fluids secm< to us to be 

indicated. Of those in which their administration 

timulants is urgently called for, in order to 

in the flagging circulation, when the heart's 



ALCOHOLIC 






action is enfeebled by some violen 
general system, — such a£ 

a blow on the epigastrium pi 

the solar plexus, ex 

of the - and sud 

the like, — we need say but littl 

be more absurd than to say. th 

a poison, it can never be benencia 

applies to every one of 

and those who declare that the; h 

swallow a drop of this poison and we hi 

assured that this threat ha 

s wilfully throwing iheii live 

suicide who takes a dose of pi 
his brains out with a pistol. In many 01 
we have mentioned, none but alcoholic stimuJ 
will have the desired effect : and if that effect be 
not produced, death is inevitable. Those who h . 
watched, as we have, by the bedside of children ii 

te of collapse from a severe bum. and have had 
the satisfaction of finding themselves able to sustain 
the circulation and the warmth of the body by 
frequent administration of a spoonful or two of 
cordial, but have experienced the subsequent molli- 
fication of finding, that, when they had given place 
to another less attentive nurse, the little patients 
have sunk after a brief intermission of the con* 
support which they require, can fully enter into our 
appreciation of the value of this class of remedies. 
But, in all cases of this kind, it is of the utmost 
16* 



186 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 



importance not to carry the stimulating plan too 
far, or the subsequent re-action may give us a fearful 
retribution for our incaution. And this is of course 
to be peculiarly borne in mind in cases of concus- 
sion of the brain ; since the re-action which results 
from the injury alone is in many cases so difficult 
to combat, without the addition of that which re- 
sults from the injudicious use of stimulants. We 
are inclined to think, that in many cases of prostra- 
tion, in which the cooling of the body is taking 
place rapidly, and offers an additional impediment 
to the restoration of the circulation, the freer appli- 
cation of external warmth, especially by means of 
the hot-air bath, is likely to prove a most useful 
adjunct to the stimulants exhibited internally. 

The class of cases in which the habitual use of 
alcoholic stimulants is most commonly, and, in our 
opinion, most perniciously, recommended by practi- 
tioners of medicine, is that in which there is chronic 
disorder of the digestive apparatus, with its multi- 
form consequences. This disorder, in at least nine 
cases out of ten, has its origin in inattention to the 
laws of health, as regards diet, regimen, exercise, 
physical or mental exertion, and the like ; and we 
cannot reasonably look for its cure by the use of 
stimulants. For the action of these, in such states 
of the system, is precisely like the application of 
the whip or spur to the horse already tired, which 
produces a temporary improvement in his pace, and 
prompts him to get through his work the quicker. 



ALCOHOLIC DBD 187 

but which leaves him, when he has done it, more 
fatigued than if he had taken his own time. We do 
not in the least deny, that, by men who arc under- 
going the excessive " wear and tear" of incessant and 
anxious mental exertion, the work is accomplished 
with more feeling of ease at the time, and even 
with less immediately consequent fatigue, when al- 
coholic stimulants are moderately employed. And 
upon such a system we find men going on month 
after month, and even year after year, without any 
obvious injury. But the time almost inevitably 
comes, when the overtasked system gives way ; and 
long and difficult is then the process of restoration 
from its disordered state, as every medical man well 
knows. Now, we are confident, that, when the ex- 
ertion of the nervous system is greater than can be 
borne without the assistance of alcohol, provided 
due attention be given to diet, fresh air, out-door 
exercise, and sleep, the excess produces a positive 
injury, which is sure to manifest itself at some time 
or other ; the use of alcohol only warding it of! for 
a time, and preventing it from being at once felt. 
It is in renovating the system after such a course of 
long-continued ill-treatment, that we regard the hy- 
dropathic treatment as peculiarly effectual. We may 
keep our patient in town at his usual occupations, 
practise all kinds of experiments upon his stomach, 
recommend fat bacon or lean chops, prescribe blue- 
pill or senna- draught, or quinine and calumbo, and 
ring the changes upon all the wines and malt- 






the rnYSioLooi 



Liquors which the cellar can furnish, in search of 
one that shall be free from directly injurious conse- 
quences ; but we shall not effect a twentieth part 
of the benefit which our patient will derive from 
giving himself a complete holiday, betaking himself 
to some agreeable spot where there is sufficient to 
interest him, but nothing to excite ; promoting a 
copious action of his skin by exercise, sweating, 
and free ablution ; washing out his inside with oc- 
casional (but not excessive) draughts of cold w 
and trusting to the natural call of appetite alone, 
in preference to artificial provocatives. Let those 
who decry hydropathy witness the results of this 
method, as we have done, in but cases, and 

they must come to the conclusion, unless blinded by 
prejudice or interest, that water is better than v. i 
and that a hearty miscellaneous meal, a 
with a vigorous natural appetite, is more invigor- 
ating than the carefully-selected and d< 
prepared viands to which the dyspeptic subj< 
compelled to restrict himself, and which he car 
digest with the aid of a glass of sherry, or a tumbler 
of bitter ale. 

The insensibility to the effects of various mor- 
bific causes, which the use of alcoholic stimul 
induces, and the toleration of them which it thus 
permits, is one of the most fertile sources of si 
quent disease. As in the cases just adverted to, 
if we are prevented from feeling the immediate 
consequences of our improper course, we 6 



ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 1 Si) 

ourselves that we are uninfluenced by them ; and we 
give to our wine, our spirits, or our beer, the credit 
of the escape. But this is far from being the case. 
The enemy is only baffled, not dispersed ; and, al- 
though he lies concealed for a time, he only waits 
until his onslaught can be more effectually made. 
Bad air, insufficient and unwholesome food, impure 
water, foulness of the skin and garments, and sim- 
ilar departures from the strict laws of health, must 
exert their influence on the system, all the alcohol 
in the world notwithstanding ; and it is one of the 
greatest benefits of abstinence, that, by making 
these evils less endurable, it prompts the sufferer 
to seek a remedy. Let our readers refer to the 
account of the former condition of the great tailors' 
workshops in London (Sanitary Report, 1842, pp. 
99 et seq.), where the heat and closeness were such 
that, on the coldest nights of winter, large thick 
tallow candles melted and fell over with the heat, 
and fresh hands from the country fainted away ; 
and where gin was taken at seven o'clock in the 
morning to get the strength up for the day's work, 
and repeated three or four times in the subsequent 
ten hours ; and then look at the consequences upon 
the health of the men, whose average age is not 
above thirty- two years, owing to the large mortality 
from consumption ; whilst, at fifty, they are con- 
sidered as superannuated. We have here an example 
that speaks strongly for itself. And, applying this 
result to other cases, we think it will be admitted. 



THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF 

.hen the tolerance of such nuisances as exist in 
the dwellings and workshops of our laboring popu- 
lation depends upon the use of fermented liquor-, it 
l- nothing less than an unmixed evil. 

might have added much upon other topics 

scted with the therapeutic use of alcohol : but 
our limited 'space compels us to leave it with only 
one observation. The whole medical art is based 
upon experience ; and the value of any remedy can 
nly fairly tested by the omission of it in some 
of the cases in which it has been reputed to be 
most successful. Xo thing can be stronger than the 
reputation which alcoholic stimulants have acquired, 
as affording efficient aid in the maintenance of the 
bodily strength under circumstances calculated to 
exhaust it ; and yet the most unimpeachable testi- 
mony has shown the fallacy of this opinion, and has 
put "universal experience " quite in the wrong. So 
it Iras sometimes happened that medical men have 
assured staunch teetotallers that they would die 
unless they admitted alcohol into their system as 
a medicine : but the patients, being obstinate, did 
neither, thus falsifying the prediction in a very 
unexpected measure, and proving that the experi- 
of doctors is not more infallible than that of 
the public. 

We should gladly, also, have discussed the ques- 
tion, whether the sudden and complete disuse, or 
the slow and gradual diminution, of the allowance 
of fermented liquors, in cases where intemperate 



ALCOHOLIC DRINK-. 191 

habits arc to be reformed, is the least injurious 
the constitution. But this, too, we must dismiss 
with the brief observation, that, considering the 
large number of habitual drunkards who have 
adopted the former course, the number of i 
of delirium tremens that have occurred in conse- 
quence has been marvellously small. If the moral 
strength could be relied on to adopt the more grad- 
ual method, we should consider it as safer on the 
whole ; but in those who have been subjected to 
the degrading influence of frequent intoxication, 
and have acquired that craving for liquor which 
must be regarded as constituting a diseased con- 
dition, every taste of the forbidden gratification 
occasions a fresh conflict with the better nature, to 
which it is most dangerous to subject it, and the 
shortest method is generally the safest. 

We now commend this important subject to the 
best attention of our readers. We speak as unto 
wise men ; and we ask for nothing but a candid 
and dispassionate hearing. 



We have attributed this article to Dr. Forbes, without 
direct authority from him. But, as he was the sole Editor 
of the " British and Foreign Medical Review," — as the 
article has been published with his sanction, and as there 
are few individuals who possess so great a knowledge of the 
subject, and so much talent for its development, — we think 
that no great mistake can be made in imputing it to this 
distinguished person. 



A VOICE FROM ENGLAND. 



>RK ENTITLED 



"CO M MO N SEN 8 E. 

V:Y THE 

KEY. WM, WIGHT, B.A. 

Of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Curate of St. John'i 
J\Tewcastle-upon- Tyne. 



" Tlie great philanthropist, Howard, is reported to have said, that, of 
all the inventions for inflicting misery upon the human species, he 
believed there was none so satanic, or so fatal to man, as the invention 
of strong drink ; and Howard became an abstainer. Would that we 
possessed more of his self-denying spirit ! " 

" A clergyman in Sussex says, that, previous to going up to Sydney 
College, he determined to become a total abstainer. There went up at 
the same time with him a party of his friends, most of them clergymen's 
sons, but without this principle of total abstinence. Before they had 
been at Cambridge twelve months, every one had turned out a rowing 
dissipated character, so much so that he could no longer associate with 
them." 

" Among the Dissenters, the Rev. Mr. Dickenson says, that nineteen 
cases out of every twenty calling for church discipline, are through 
strong drinks." 

" Rev. Mr. Baker speaks of the master of a village school near Lon- 
don, who, on examining the names of one hundred and thirty persons 
living in the village, and whose names appeared in the register of the 
school, ascertained that ninety-one were open drunkards." 

" The author has received a letter from a gentleman in the county 

of N , and from which the following is an extract : — 'I am a 

Churchman, and love my Church ; and i should love her more, were 
her hallowed walls cleansed from the foul stain of intemperance. Our 

17 



194 



\ VOICE PROM ENGI \\ :>>. 



previous minister was a confirmed drunkard. I was obliged to leave 
my parish church, and attend one about a mile and a half off. Of seven 
< 'liincli ministers in this neighborhood, I have seen five tipsy.' " 

" The Rev. Mr. Jay, of Bath, says that in one month not less than 

Dissenting ministers came under his notice, who were suspended 

through intoxicating liquors. Thus, alas! priest and prophet are erring 

through strong drink, and yet we are repeatedly told intemperance is 

confined to the working classes." 

" Many persons argue, that a more extended system of education 
would remove drunkenness among the working classes ; yet, in the 
deeply interesting inquiry which recently took place in the House of 
Commons concerning the condition of the working classes, a most com- 
petent authority was quoted who declared education would do little or 
nothing to protect the people against the inducements held out to 
drink." 

" According to that excellent and Christian statesman, Lord Ashley, 
England, notwithstanding the great increase of her benevolent and reli- 
gious institutions, has not, for the last two hundred years, been in a 
more degraded and heathenish state than at the present moment. Now, 
the present day abounds with plans for improving the condition of the 
people ; but can any of them succeed against the blasting and withering 
influence of our drinking customs? It is a physical impossibility. Take 
Birmingham, the workshop of England : notwithstanding all the clam- 
ors of the people about taxation and depression of trade, it appears the 
people of that town are spending more than £600,000 annually in strong 
drink. At Glasgow a committee was appointed some time back to inquire 
into the causes of distress so prevalent ; and it came out in evidence, that 
£1,200,000 were annually spent in that city in intoxicating liquors, of 
which sum the working classes spent one million. The comparatively 
small town of Paisley was petitioning Parliament lately for assistance 
to save the wretched inhabitants from actual starvation, yet was this 
town spending at the rate of £80,000 a year in alcoholic drinks." 

" In a mere physical point of view, the consideration that the capital 
embarked in our intoxicating drinks employs about 400,000 hands; 
which capital, were it not connected with the manufacturing of these 
things, would flow in useful trades and enterprise-, and would employ 
nol 100,000, but something like three millions ; one would suppose, that 
this fact would alone be sufficient to commend the adoption of teetotal- 
lism to every humane and benevolent heart." 

iv \i the great national banquet which took place in Dublin, Lord 
Morpeth, after giving the particulars of the returns of outrages in the 



FROM ENGLAND 1 95 



constabulary office, by which it appeared that since 183f> they had 
diminished one third, proceeded to remark that, of the heaviest offences, 
such as homicides, outrages upon the person, assaults with attempts to 
murder, aggravated assaults, cutting and maiming, there were, in 1837, 
12,096 ; in 1838, 11,058 3 in 1839 > !> 097 ; in 1840, 173." 

" The defalcation in the revenue consequent upon the temperance 
movement in Ireland for 1842 or 1843 was, if we rememher right, 
£300,000 in the article of intoxicating drink ; but the entire revenue 
showed an increase of no less a sum than £90,000. Thus the Govern- 
ment, instead of receiving £300,000 upon articles which only demoral- 
ized and poisoned the people, obtained £390,000 upon articles which 
could have no other tendency than to improve the moral and social 
condition of the people." 

" When God in mercy disclosed to us, through Dr. Jenner, the vac- 
cination principle, by which, humanly speaking, thousands of lives are 
annually saved, the medical world condemned it, and with them the 
nation at large, and the system was denounced from the pulpit. But 
now the medical men own that Dr. Jenner was right, and his discovery 
has become the law of the land." 

" Yet what an astounding fact does the history of Great Britain exhibit 
at this present moment ! The professors of religion have it in their 
power to remove a vast amount of crime, misery, and wickedness j they 
have it in their power to reclaim hundreds of thousands of drunkards, 
and all this at the paltry sacrifice of abandoning the use of intoxicating 
drinks ; yet professors hesitate — refuse to make the sacrifice. And this 
crime, misery, and wickedness, exist and will continue ; these hundreds 
of thousands of immortal beings are drunkards, and will continue drunk- 
ards, because the professed followers of the cross will not abandon their 
pernicious drinking practices ! What a sickening truth this is ! yet a 
truth as demonstrable as any problem in Euclid. O God ! send convic- 
tion home to all such hearts, and enable them to resolve in thy strength 
that they will never again touch the accursed thing." 

" How much truth is there in the remark of the Bishop of Norwich, 
when he says, ' It is on temperance societies the fulcrum might be 
rested to raise the British nation to what it ought to be.' Go to the 
ministers of the gospel, and inquire what is the vice that proves the curse 
of their parishes, and they will tell you it is the love of strong drink ; 
ask them if their preaching of the gospel removes it, and they will tell 
you it utterly fails. A most devoted and pious clergyman, not many 
miles from Cambridge, called a meeting of the clergy in that part of the 
country. To every one of these clergymen he put this question : — 



196 A VOICE FROM ENGLAND. 



{ Have you i taimed a drunkard bj anj othei means than thai oi 

total abstinence? 9 Each replied b had not Vt til the cl 
ings he subseqai rj 

ii testimony went to prove, that it was only w h 
clergyman gave U] drink, that he was a blessing to 

the unhappy drunkard. A few weeks back, on passing an evening 
with some friends of the Rev. Mr. Jay, the respected dissenting minister 
of Bath, it was me] ; aged minister, after preaching the 

gospel faithfully for upwards of fifty years, declared he did not know 
that his labors had ever been useful to a single drunkard. Mr. Jay has 
now become an abstainer." 

" Mr. Teare, of Preston, saj^s that he was a city missionary for ten 
years, and that his principal business was to go about among the drunk- 
ards, conversing, reading, and praying with them ; that, during the whole 
ten years, he never succeeded with one drunkard, though occasionally 
with infidels. But, when a Total Abstinence S Wished 

in that town, three hundred drunkards were reel i ie year, and 

many of them became Sabbath-school teachers and members of Christian 
churches. Now, here is an astounding fact. This great and prof 
Christian nation, in a most degraded and heathenish state through our 
strong drink, and the mere preaching of the gospel failing to meet the 
evil. Nor is this the case with Christian England only ; for an excellent 
clergyman well observes, the three countries in the world in which the 
gospel is most faithfully preached are England, the United States of 
North America, and the Protestant States in the North of Europe ; yet, 

drunkenness prevails to such an ex; 
an utter reproach to them. Now, is it a defective gospel? God forbid! 
It is a defective carrying-out of that gospel. It is not sufficient to preach 
th ■ gospel, — we must act it, practise it j we must contend, not so much 
for the 1 tte'r as Th ■ benevolent spirit of that gospel, which teaches us to 
abstain from the use of ev< n lawful things, when, by so doing, we can 
promote the temporal and eternal welfare of others. As well might we 
the preaching of the gospel and the grace of God would preserve 
a man who took arsenic from being poisoned, as to expect the preaching 
<>f the gospel and the grace of God will pr drunk- 

enness, if we continue to manufactur 



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